It is a testament to the gardening-crazed culture of the Bay Area that when you say the word "ginger," people are as likely to think of the plant as the spice. With ginger's often striking tropical ...

A genuine elixir of youth.This is how shell ginger -also known as Alpinia zerumbet - is usually presented, a plant straight from Japan that is said to increase life expectancy. The ingredient, which ...

Growth habit: An evergreen perennial growing in expanding clumps to 8 feet tall and at least as wide. The leaves are deep green and oblong in shape, growing to 2 feet long and 6 inches wide along ...

There are almost 200 species of Alpinia, which are members of the ginger family. The shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) often is seen as a background plant in conservatories. It grows from an underground ...

This evergreen ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), from Southeast Asia, is extremely popular. Up to 12 feet tall on sites that are heavily enriched with compost and manure, variegated shell ginger revels in ...

QUESTION: Last year we had a bumper crop of shell ginger blooms. They were very beautiful and more abundant than I have seen in past years. Do you expect that this will happen again this spring?

Months of hot, humid weather make summers in New Orleans a challenge for many plants (and people). But as some plants languish in the heat, a wonderful group called gingers thrive and delight us with ...