Well I am just seeing this post but anyway maybe you are seeing some signs of growth by now. I sure think you did a good thing digging sorting cutting back etc. I really think they will be fine. I don't think you actually had freezing temps in zone ten. You will probably have to cut back the top growth if it became cold damaged which it pretty much had to have. Mostly it is just wait for signs of growth then give a shot of fertilizer if necessary. James

I have to say , when my original Costus barbatus began to produce growth from the leaf axils, I at first though those might be the beginnings of branches , but as they developed further, it was very evident to me that they were a form of "pups" or offsets! The clincher of course, was when they dropped off very easily with only a slight nudge and they did form a bulbous growth at their base right next the the leaf axils on the main stems. Are there many others that do this "pup" propagation as well, and I wonder why mine no longer has done that with any of the new plants from various root divisions over the years? Perhaps the plant needs some degree of stress (excess dryness perhaps) to encourage that pup formation. Just seemed sort of "neet" to me to have so many easily available offsets or pups , which rooted very quickly to start new plants.

Lisa, I'm not sure what you mean about having a free style. Virtually every group of plants have styles distinct from the stamens. Orchids don't, but then they have a special term for the structures involved. In fact, gingers come about as close to a combined stamen/style as it gets without them actually being fused. Is what you are talking about that the style often forms a bowstring of sorts? It isn't supposed to do that. In cultivation it happens all the time but in the wild it is much more rare. More often the style is completely included in the groove of the filament. Yes, those pictures are of G. patens. I used to have a bunch of evergreens but the people in the greenhouse where I kept them didn't understand that and let them dry out with all the other Globbas one winter. Unfortunately it was too late before I figured out what was happening. I think all the flowers are hermaphrodites. My guess is that only the species in section Nudae have unisexual flowers. I'm surprised you don't have G. atrosanguinea. It is fairly commonly grown and has the reddest bracts of any Globba. Much more potential there. G. corneri is nice, I've only seen pictures though. Would love to get my hands on it someday. G. albobracteata is another white bracted evergreen species. But it has a much longer (almost stretched out looking) inflorescence. G. unifolia has red-orange bracts I believe (in the most common form, I have a all green form). G. curtissii doesn't have nice bracts to speak of but has a large many flowered inflorescence. It might be worth working with to try and cross with some of the compact evergreens with more color. Over time you might get lucky and get a large infl. with colorful bracts in an evergreen species. I just remembered G. fragilis. As the name suggests it is pretty small and delicate. But it is probably my favorite of the evergreen species. I only have one picture of it and it isn't that good. But the leaves have two white streaks on the leaves (one on either side of the midrib) and the lower surface is dark red-purple. The bracts are a distinctive firery yellow-orange color. I may send you the picture I have as you can see all these traits, even if you have to squint to make some of them out! 100 messages on this thread. Pretty good...even if two entirely different subjects have been discussed! -Kyle

I don't know what a Costus barbatus is (off to google though), but I wanted to say that we pruned a Coco Plum far too late into the season and all that new growth got hit extra hard, and I thought for sure they were dead and lo and behold teeny tiny new leaves are just beginning to emerge on the parts that I thought were for certain to be pulled out and started over again. Hopefully the same will be true for you too.