Andres, Zone 6 gardener in southern Indiana here. I'm fairly new to gingers, but no one else has given you a reply, so I'll see if I can at least intiate some discussion. Gingers aren't hardy here, so I do all my growing in pots. I have had good luck with globba winitii. I let it get down to 50 degrees in the winter and it goes totally dormant and is slow to 'wake up' in the spring, but grows quickly and blooms every year. Unfortunately, no fragrance, but really cool blooms. I also have several hedychiums in five-gallon pots. They stay green at 50 degrees in the winter, but you can let them go completely dormant, too. The challenge in a short growing season like yours, will be bringing them from complete dormancy and into bloom before fall. I would try keeping them cool and alive (green) all winter, which speeds up the new shoots in the spring. The old shoots don't have to grow to keep the plant 'awake' and ready to go. I would recommend a rich potting soil, a big pot, and lots of heat and water in the sunniest place you have to get them to bloom. From what I have read, they don't like to be planted out and re-dug every season like cannas will tolerate, so I'd keep them in pots. I'd also start with big plants, if possible. Mail order sources vary from dry, very small rhizomes, to huge, growing plants. Small ones may take a whole extra year to bloom. It's hard to find a 'short' hedychium for a pot. My first one was 'Vanilla Ice', the more variegated form of 'Dr. Moy'. It was supposed to get 3' tall, but it got 6' tall in a pot and still had plenty of time to bloom before frost here. Our last frost is around April 15th and our first frost is around October 15th. I want to get 'Daniel Weeks' since it's supposed to be one of the earliest to flower, and that's the key for cold-weather growers. I have flowered Tai Monarch and Anne Bishop, also. I have several other new ones, but haven't grown them big enough to bloom yet. As far as alpinias, they are a challenge since they don't bloom on the current year's shoots. You have to grow the shoots tall one season and keep them healthy, happy, and growing, to bloom the next spring. I have bloomed alpinia zerumbet variegata (once!), but really just grow it for its foliage. I'd love to be able to grow some of the other alpinias, but am tight on space and it's hard to justify something that never blooms for me. Hope some of this helps. Hoping for a HOT summer here for lots of quick growth. Best of luck with your plants! Bob

I'm new to grow lights as well, but I had to get something as I have many seedlings that are in their first year and not supposed to go dormant. I ended up getting a T5 fixture, 4 lights, 4 feet long. It was $98 including shipping on ebay. (That's for shipping in the US, I don't know about other locations)From what I read the T5's are the newest type of tube grow light, supposedly more efficient and better than it's predecessors the T8 and T12. These are also supposed to stay cooler than many of the other types of lights, not as expensive as the LED's, and the wattage is higher than what Home Depot and the box stores sell and also beat their prices too. For my budget this seemed like a great option. You can get vegetative or bloom lights, for me I got vegetative. My boyfriend saw the size of this thing and thought I paid $300 or $400!!! LOL!!! Thank goodness I got to tell him it was nowhere near that!

Kerri, First off, welcome! You've found about the friendliest, most helpful gardening group around. Several people that visit this forum live in your area, so I hope they see your post. This is kind of a slow period, so be patient. Gardening here is a challenge. Many of us came from other parts of the country, where you just stick a plant in and off it goes. As you now know, that doesn't necessarily work here. We've also been in severe/exceptional drought for several years, followed up by last September's epic 12" precip. event. ...THE FLOOD. There doesn't seem to be a "normal" here. The first thing I would do is a soil test. You need to find out what kind of soil you have and what nutrients it's lacking. Take samples from areas you haven't amended yet. Basically, you dig about a shovel length deep in several areas of your yard then take a handful of soil from each hole and put it all in one ziplock bag. Then seal it up and mail it in with the form you can print from the link below. It costs $31 for the test. In a few weeks they mail or email you a soil report. Once you have that, you know where to begin. You can come back here with the results and we can make suggestions for amendments. You may need to look at building raised beds or lasagna beds as amending your entire yard may be too much to tackle all at once. You've obviously gone to a lot of work and expense already, it's time for some success!. Make friends with some of those neighbors with beautiful yards. They can be very helpful in recommending plants and techniques that will work here. RMG has a plant swap in the spring, usually in May and another in the fall, September/October . We will probably start planning it in the next month or so. We have a pot luck lunch and people bring plants to share. We welcome newbies that may not have anything to share yet. It's a great way to meet local gardeners and get some plants that are proven to grow here. I hope this helps. Barb Here is a link that might be useful: soil testing

I absolutely love ginger, but I wasn't able to post to this before. I also love ginger flowers and have several types of ginger in my yard now. The blue ginger is blooming right now (see link below), but I also have red and white gingers, none of which are edible, but some of the flowers have very nice fragrances that are quite unique. As for edible ginger, I keep a jar of ginger paste (from an Indian market) that I use in soups, marinades, and stir fries, but not desserts. For desserts, I use ginger that I keep in the freezer. I should probably grow edible ginger. I bought ginger snaps at TJ's last week-end (along with some other more decadent cookies), but I think I should have made them myself. They were good but not quite gingery enough. I don't have any dried ginger. Lars Here is a link that might be useful: