Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ever grown a ginger in full shade. If so, did they do well ?
We don't have shade now but will have when we move next year and I am looking forward to having a shade garden
Thanks, Jolana

I just now saw the "shade gardening" sorry

Yes, many gingers do well in shade, Butterfly ginger being one of them.

Oh, thank you so much, I love them and now will have a shade garden and a favorite in it. we are having such a mild winter here, the gingers I have now just have lil nips from cold on the tips. I hope that means I will get blooms on all, unless I just jinxed it, LOL
Thanks again

I agree with @Dutchlady1. I grow my ginger varieties in full sun, part sun, and mostly shade. The difference I have found over the years is that the plants will not get as large and the blooming will be later, the more shade the plants grow in.

Thanks everyone, I started getting the bed ready. I can't wait till spring!!!

Also, if you grow them in shade this usually means they're close to some trees, which might have roots competing underground for water and nutrients. Gingers like LOTS of water, so you might need to water them extra in the shade, and give them a really rich top-dressing of compost c/w fert once in a while. (if you put it on top, the tree roots won't gobble all the goodies before the gingers have a chance) I had a clump fairly close to my mango tree for years, and I've gradually had to divide it and move it out because the mango gives too dense shade in summer, and also has out-competed them for water so they pretty much stopped blooming.

Still made nice foliage, though. They're strong plants, if you give them what they need!

I was worried when she said full shade in the first post. I have full sun on mine and only hedychiums. I tried growing a couple of them, one in complete shade, one in partial and neither did well. So back to the sunshine for me. I have however planted a greenii in partial shade but it's new so I don't have anything to report yet.

Kabby, greenii didn't bloom well for me in bright filtered shade, so I've moved mine out to more sun. Where they are now, they get sun in the morning and late afternoon, and are shaded by my big stand of bamboo in the middle of the day. They made a few stingy little flowers and then made offsets on the flower heads! So at least I had plenty of new starts to transplant.

I have 3 different Ginger and they are in pots. Zone 5B NW Missouri so they come in in October. Last Summer was my first time with them and I had to experiment with them before finding here they seemed to like partial shade best overall.

What I settled on was mostly sun in early morning and then to shade by noon and later. This worked best for me. When they were in midday to mid afternoon sun, they got fried. Toast - no matter how much I watered them.

The same above was the case for my Turmeric.

I dug up and stored the Turmeric. Will repot soon. I dug up a store bought ginger and allowed it to dry for a week. Split and repotted ~ Christmas time.

The other two - White Butterfly and Kahili are enjoying the winter in my Living room. The White Butterfly actually threw its only bloom indoors.

They don't seem terribly sad, but not too happy either.

Thanks for all of the info. Do you think I should keep them in pots till I see what the will do or do you think they might not perform the same as in ground?

Growing them in pots, like growing them in shade, will produce smaller plants and later blooming.

I don't know, Ken. I grew some Hedychium 'Dr. Moy' in a 16in. pot one summer and they topped out at well over 6ft. tall. (you can see in the picture they came up to the top of the door) Morning sun and generous water and fert, though. They're never bigger than that in the ground, here at least.

Ken

In your area, can you grow them in full sun?

I have grown both the White Butterfly and Shampoo gingers plus the Sunset Canna in all kinds of conditions, and all of them in pots, and I am using some 24" diameter pots, average about 2' shorter. Those in full or part sun and in the ground will be 7-8 footers and those in pots, often adjacent to those in the landscape, will be around 5' tall. Just my experience.

Yes, David, as per my previous posts on growing ginger (I only grow the two varieties), I grow them in full sun, part sun, and mostly-shade (sun coming through a canopy of oak leaves). The ones in full or part sun grow larger and bloom earlier.