Curcuma Ornamental Ginger Rhizome Growing Guide

Ornamental Curcuma Gingers provide a taste of the tropics during summer months with their lush green foliage and vibrant flowers.

To get the best out of your Ginger Rhizomes, you need to know how to plant & nurture them which is why we've put together this little guide to get your beauties off to the best start.


Where to plant your rhizome

Ornamental Curcuma Gingers can be grown in a pot, or in the ground and will do well inside or outside.


Growing Inside

If you're going to be growing your Ginger inside, you'll need to choose a pot that will give the complex root system enough room to expand.  A good starting size is a pot that's 140mm in diameter.

You'll want a rich, well draining soil or really good quality potting mix.


Growing Outside

If you plan on growing your Ginger outside, you'll need to choose a spot in the garden that gets a good amount of sunshine and is protected from strong winds.

Again, you should choose somewhere with a rich, well draining soil.


How to care for your rhizome

Growing these tropical beauties is relatively easy if you follow a few simple rules when caring for your plant.


Watering & Feeding

Water your rhizome once when you first plant it.
Don't water it again until your start to see shoots appear.

Don't water your plant during the dormant winter months.

Water your plant regularly during the flowering months.
Feed your plant a balanced, slow release fertiliser during the flowering months only.


Dormant Winter

About mid Autumn, when the weather starts to get colder, the foliage on your Ginger plant will begin to die off.

Eventually, the leaves will turn brown and droop to the ground completely.  This is normal and needs to happen naturally - don't be tempted to pull the foliage off as you can cause damage to the rhizome.

Remember - don't want it at all during these dormant months.


Here's some of our beautiful varieties

29 thoughts on “Curcuma Ornamental Ginger Rhizome Growing Guide

  1. Susan says:

    Thank you! I bought 6 potted curcuma ginger this summer and I wanted to learn how to winter them over in the pots they came in . They all turned brown and look like they are going dormant. Do I just leave them in the pots and put them in a closet over winter? Zone 5 here in new york

    • admin says:

      Hi Susan! That’s exactly what they will be doing so yes, leave them in their pots. Once all the foliage dies off, you can pot them into something bigger for next season if you want to. As long as the closet is fairly dry (not in a laundry or bathroom) then yes, that would be the perfect spot for them 🙂

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Eden,

      All curcuma are edible but they make such beautiful flowers we don’t usually eat them :/ The Zingiber officienale is the edible ginger, which we grow at the nursery 🙂

  2. Vicki says:

    Can you tell us how to avoid the leaf edges on our Curuma Voodoo Magic from going brown during the flowering season. We also have some other varieties that are getting some white spot on the leaves.

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Vicky,

      Brown edging on the leaves can be from multiple reasons. It may be overwatering, sunburn or disease. Or if that section has finished flowering it is normal for the shoot to go brown as the rhizome is sucking back the nutrition it needs. We would suggest keeping them in a warm (humid) but shady area if possible and do not overwater. Our horticulturist advises he has never seen white spots on our gingers although he says that small caterpillars can dry out sections of the leaves and make them look white. Hope this helps!!

  3. Cathy Fitzsimmons says:

    The squirrels are eating the flowers off my circumstances plants. How can I keep them from doing this?

  4. Melanie from Mapleton says:

    Hi, my Mum has a few different ginger plants in her garden with a fair amount of sunlight (the tall tree-ferns cause shade in some areas). We planted them about 10 years ago and they have always drooped at the stem in every season despite pruning, fertilising every couple of months, and light watering every two weeks if there isn’t rain. Just 15km away a garden has beautiful luscious ginger plants bordering their foliage and we are jealous haha. Is there any way we can stop the drooping of the stems? Thanks in advance.

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Melanie, what type of gingers do you grow? The gingers we grow at our nursery are deciduous so all our foliage droops and dies off in winter. We don’t water during winter at all as the rhizomes can rot in cold damp soil. Lots of water in hot weather though! If your gingers are drooping in summer your soils PH may be off or not have enough nutrients. If you are in Mapleton, like me, I have beehive gingers and zingibers but always get drooping in colder weather.

      • Melanie from Mapleton says:

        Thank you for your response, we have so many different types of ginger but I’m not sure exactly what any of them are, Dad knew every plant in our garden but he’s passed over and we’re trying to keep his beautiful garden to the standards he kept. I believe we have one beehive ginger, a couple of scarlet ginger, and mostly shell ginger with a couple of others types I’m still not sure of. Yep I live in Mapleton, unfortunately they droop all year not just winter (went to Woombye zoo two weeks ago and they have managed to keep their massive ginger plants immaculate, no drooping at all, so jealous haha). I’ll have to investigate the PH levels in our gardens. Might have to try a different fertiliser…

  5. Sheila says:

    Hi I live in Vancouver 🇨🇦 I dried my ginger plant out last year with good results the only problem was I got a small batch of leaves but no flowers. Any suggestions?

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Sheila, we are not really versed in growing gingers outside of tropical areas / humid and warm environments. The best guess we have is not flowering due to lack of light (day length or plant location) or temperature. Our best suggestion would be trying on local pages to seek someone else in and around Vancouver to see if gingers can be successfully grown up there. Good luck!!

  6. Coralie McIlwraith says:

    Do you dig your rhizomes up for winter? Or how do you prevent any watering with rain with those planted in gardens?

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Coralie,

      No, you do not need to dig out your rhizomes in the garden once the weather cools down, natural winter rainfall is fine. We recommend leaving the browning leaves to die off naturally though as pulling on them can damage the rhizome. If any of your gingers are in pots though then we recommend storing them in a shed for winter or pulling out the rhizomes. Hope this helps!

  7. narcotics says:

    Αfter I initiallʏ commented I seеm to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I receive four
    emails with the same comment. Perhaps there is an easy method you aгe able to remоve me from that service?
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    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Agnes,

      Thanks for your enquiry, unfortunately I cannot find where the contact form request is to disable it for you. I have temporarily made the post private so the public cannot see it. I am hoping this will kick you out of the messaging section.

  8. Deborah says:

    I thought mine had froze. so just now i was turning the soil over to plant something new. OHHHHH i have life. Confusing life… but life. its putting new shoots out from the original rhizomes. YEAH!!! But what are the little balls hangin from the roots….. that have roots themselves?
    Deborah

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Deborah, that’s just the ginger rhizomes spreading out to make more rhizomes. They are very alien looking!!! You can dry them to keep over winter then replant in spring or if they are not in pots normal winter rainfall is fine 🙂

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Hi Teresa,

      Ginger Rhizomes are deciduous so would be available to purchase in the Summer months. Ours are available January – April with some smaller numbers in December dependent on warm weather. We will have our available online from January onwards for our East Australian customers. Good luck with your search 🙂

  9. Paula says:

    We are moving and would like to take our plants with us. The flowers have died and some leaves are brown and laying on the ground. Can I dig up and put in soil for the winter and then plant at new house in the spring? And if so would I water it at all in the winter?

    • Palmwood Tropicals says:

      Ginger rhizomes can most certainly be dug up and kept cool, dry and in a low light location through the winter. It’s ideal not to water during the winter to avoid fungal problems or rot. Simply pop the rhizomes into the ground or some fresh potting mix mid to late spring, water well them only occasionally until the new shoots appear.

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