I am not much for ornamental plants so when I was introduced into ginger, I guess that's better as decoration since it has other purposes aside from that. We usually have ginger in a pot especially when we stayed in the apartment for 2 years. We had some potted ornamental plants because there was no soil, only concrete. Ginger grows fast and we usually place the pots inside the house when there are house guests. It also serves as a conversational piece. You can guess that only few people know of the ginger plant.
I'm a big fan of container gardening. It's so much easier to relocate plants when they're not doing well in one spot, when they're in containers, especially if you have them on wheels. I have some wheeled plant dollies specifically for that purpose, because at some places I've lived, I've had to move the plants around frequently. It's also helpful for when I've had to move them due to approaching storms. I'm happy to hear that ginger is a fast growing plant, that gives me some hope. I still haven't gotten any, but I will at some point, and I like plants that grow quickly, and aren't a lot of trouble.
I have never seen a ginger plant so I did a quick search to see what it looks like, I have only seen the roots sold in the food store. I can see why you would use it as a house plant it is pretty.
Wow ! that is certainly a gorgeous plant. I also planted a ginger root that i bought at the store; but Iam not sure if it has sprouted yet or not, since I planted it in with some other plants that were already in the planter. Now that I see what it should look like, I will go out and look closer and see if I can tell whether it has sprouted or not. I did pick a ginger root that looked like it had little nubbles of sprouts on it, and I thought it should grow. It is planted in with the lemon tree (or maybe it is the orange tree ?) so I will be bringing it inside this winter. If it does sprout, and is fast growing, then it will probably need its own pot before too long.
@Pat Baker, our ginger has a different appearance. This is our local ginger which has slender and green leaves. From what I know, that one in the photo is the variegated type, a hybrid. That's the type with big ginger roots and ours has small ginger but more potent. Here is the photo of our ginger in a plastic pot located in the front yard. That's what we use when we cook beef porridge. Sliced ginger is a good flavoring for that dish particularly if the ginger is young.
Pat, that looks like a beautiful plant. Corie, how do you remove some of it for cooking. The root is what we use, right? So how do we get it? I would like to try it. Also, can you start it by a piece of ginger, or do you need seeds?
The ginger has a big root that is the ginger itself, called rhizome. But it also has real roots aside from that. The ginger under the soil is a group as what we see on top of the soil, check the photo. When we need ginger, about a third of that in the photo is uprooted. What we do is use a knife to separate that 1/3 from the 2/3 that will remain. Then just pull the ginger plant and you have the ginger with the roots. Clean it up and wash thoroughly before using. If you find in your harvest a small ginger that you think has no use then you put that small ginger back to the ground. That's how you plant it, ginger have no seeds.
I was in a rush when I was shopping the other day, so simply grabbed a small piece to cook with, but when I have more time, I'm going to find a good piece that I can work with, to try to grow some. I'm hesitant to dig any from my neighbor's yard, even though I'm sure he won't bother with it.
It's a really interesting and creative idea! Too bad I HATE ginger. I hate it because my wife once made a fruit smoothie in which she dropped a lot of ginger instead of just a bit. That resulted in the hot taste canceling all other tastes and lingering on my tongue for half an hour afterwards.
I wonder why include ginger in a smoothie? I am a smoothie lover and sometimes we make smoothies at home. My favorite is the corn smoothie that I mix with mango slices and sometimes banana. We started making smoothies when we found out that there is crushed ice in the nearby convenience store. Our blender wouldn't work with ice cubes. If you really like ginger, try the ginger tea by boiling a small piece in a glass of water. Add some sugar and that would dissolve the cholesterol in your body.
Eh, ginger usually gives off a nice, hot touch to every smoothie, and it makes it taste better (at least in my opinion). However, I am WAY more careful now that I had to go through that tongue burning incident.