July - Garden Bloggers Bloom Day…

The 15th of every month garden writers throughout the blogosphere take part in this monthly event originated by May Dreams Gardens. It's an opportunity to observe and comment on what plants/flowers are thriving in gardens throughout the US and the world.

Last fall (2011) I attended the Galveston County Master Gardener’s Perennial Plant Sale. They always have really cool plants that aren’t readily available from area garden centers. I was particularly interested in the many ginger varieties they had and ended up purchasing several.

Much like the current drought in the mid-west – last fall here in TX, it was hotter and drier than (you fill in the blank…). But since the sale was in mid-October, I felt confident that fall rains and cooler temperatures would provide the “perfect” conditions for my new gingers to become established before winter set in. After all, fall is for planting – right? Oops. The rains never showed up and despite frequent irrigation, most of my brand new gingers bit the dust. I was VERY disappointed and down-right POed about the situation.

Now – fast forward to 2012. Miraculously many of the gingers survived and several are now blooming. The plants are a little on the scroungy side but the blooms are great. Unfortunately, in my disgust over their “pre-mature demise” I threw out most of the plant tags – so I’ll have to go back and re-identify these cultivars.

Of course I’m still not sure about the adaptability of these plants to our alley area. It receives dense shade part of the day and blistering sun the rest – but so far so good.