This is a tender perennial that likes a rich and moist soil along with lots of warm sunshine. It can be grown in a container, which can be brought inside in winter when the plant goes dormant. The rhizomatous roots are boiled and dried and made into a powder for culinary use. It originated in India, where it's a vital cooking spice and traditional remedy. In Ayurvedic medicine it's used as a blood purifier, antiparasitic, and anti-inflammatory. There's been much research done to confirm its beneficial effects on the intestines, and it is thought to be responsible for the low incidence of bowel cancer in India. I just don't use this spice enough! I've had two plants growing in pots for the past two years, neither of which has made a flower yet, but maybe this year they will!

Here it is 2019 and it's still growing, put in a bigger pot. Still no flowers so I think I'll re-pot it again this year.

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I've always known this as "Hidden Lily" ginger. My grandmother, mother, I, and now my two daughters grow it for the neat, wide, light green, 3' tall leaves and summer colorful hidden lily. I cut the pretty pastel flowers and they last a week in a vase indoors. I have used roots in cooking, but that's not why I grow them. Mark the spot where they grow because in winter they die to the ground, with no sign of the rhizomes below ground. They sprout late here in April in south Louisiana.

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