I've grown ginger in pots for years. It should continue to do fairly well in a bright indoor spot in the winter. You should watch the development of the root; I've had ginger root grow big enough that it broke through the side of a plastic pot. Store bought ginger gets around four feet tall, and can make very nice clumps. If the root is starting to get too big, just cut some of it out. Depending on the variety, you might also get some flowers on your plant; not very spectacular, but certainly interesting. Renais

My crepe ginger has never bloomed. It freezes back every winter and comes back beautifully every spring and summer. However, if it is like variegated shell ginger, it blooms on prior year growth... which is why even though we have tons of shell ginger in Jacksonville, you never see one in bloom... except sometimes close to the beach and the St. Johns River where they didn't have a hard freeze. DG, mine also lives under a tree - the magnolia, in my case. It seems to be a very happy place for a ginger. Carol

There is a very hardy bromeliad that has green leaves with simple red blooms that doesn't grow more then a foot high. I can't remember the name of it but both my parents and I have decent sized patches of them and I've never seen any frost damage on them even though we live in a cold spot in zone 9a. You could plant something like that and mix some other plants like jungle gold peacock ginger or purple queen in for some extra summer time color. Here's what the brom looks like when not in bloom. If you're interested I can probably bread off a few starts from one of the larger clumps of plants and mail them to you. Here's another tough variety of brom that I unfortuneatly don't know the name of. The trick to finding cold hardy broms seems to be in how serrated the leaf edges are. It seems like the more teeth a plant has the hardier it is! And here's a variety of brom that I think is related to the painted finger nail. These are growing at the base of a large oak and I've never covered them even in the hardest freeze. Jungle gold peacock ginger and another type that again I can't quite remember the name of. I believe that jungle gold is the largest of the peacock gingers but it still doesn't get over a foot tall. Kara

The OP is showing a picture of immature Jerusalem Artichokes. All tubers start small and because he pulled the stem up early they are not fully developed. Jerusalem Artichokes needs to go through a cold spell before they really start to develop the tubers and harvest is usually done after the plant dies off. At this immature age they are pretty white and yes small. There are different types of jerusalem artichokes as well. I have seen red ones , brown and then this, white. The chokes grow along the roots . Below is a picture of my harvest this year. I pulled mine up just a few short weeks ago. The OP's post is in August. Chinese Artichokes do not grow this sort of leaves that the OP is showing and the chokes are indented. They grow multiple short knobs down it's length not long and then knobed like the OP's picture. Plus the tubers are small. The mature tuber would be about the size the OP is showing so they should have multiple indention by now. Here is a Chinese Artichoke plant http://plant.daleysfruit.com.au/trees/m/Chinese-Artichoke-3800.jpeg https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/Chinese-Artichoke-Stachys-affinis.htm OR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys_affinis#/media/File:Stachys_sieboldii1.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stachys_affinis#/media/File:Crosnes.jpg I wish I had pictures available from when I grew my own but it has been a long while and I didn't find it worth the time and effort when I did. Oh and if it makes a difference I'm half Chinese (or Taiwanese ) , the OP seemed to think it makes a difference LOL. Because the Chinese lady who gave him "ginger" should know because she's Chinese. My credibility is better than yours if you are not LOL. Now if you STILL insist it's a Chinese Artichoke then by all means you are entitled to your opinion but based on what I see and my experience with growing both plants I'm not sure how you are coming to that conclusion.