Flower Garden - Ginger Lily
Ginger Lily
I wanted to share an exciting plant that I've discovered and have success growing here in Central Florida. It's the Ginger Lily. Also known as bitter ginger, pinecone ginger, shampoo ginger, or shampoo ginger lily.
My Garden of Pinecone Ginger Lily
This Ginger Lily plant is not from the lily family, but the leaves are similar to some of the lily plants.
When I first saw the leaves sprout from the ground in the spring, I thought it was a canna lily. The young large leaves grew and formed similar as the canna lily. Then the leaves grew extended leaves from a single stalk, and it grew light green pinecones with flowers.
Young Ginger Lily
The leaves started to grow in May during the Spring season.
Canna lilies don't have pinecones with flowers. So, I researched and discovered that this plant is from the ginger family, and it’s called Zingiber Zerumbet. I like to call it the Ginger Lily since it is from the ginger family and the leaves grew similar to the lily. Ginger Lily is easier for me to remember than zingiber zerumbet.
The soft pinecones grew from separate stalks under the canopy of its leaves. They first appeared in a light green color, then they turned pink and started soften, and fill with a gel like substance.
Cute small white flowers would pop from between the scales on the pinecones every now and then. They would display and last for less than a day or even only a few hours.
When the pinecones were ready to harvest at the end of this summer, they turned red and were completely soft. You could see some of the gel substance oozing out of the scales of the pinecones in the garden. When you squeeze it, the gel would drip out and it has a wonderful fragrant tropical scent.
Interesting Things to Know About Growing Ginger Lily Plants in Central Florida.
This ginger lily I have in my garden grows to about five to six feet tall. The pinecones grow from the ground on separate stalks than the leaves and the stalks are about between six to twelve inches tall underneath the plants canopy of leaves. The pinecones are anywhere between three and five inches.
The ginger lily grows best in the mostly shaded area of my garden where it gets the morning sun and then it is shady for the rest of the day. It is abundant where the soil is rich with compost and is always moist.
When it rains, the rainwater always puddles at the area where these plants grow. Then the puddled water quickly drains down into the soil. They love the moist but not soggy soil.
For the winter, the leaves and pinecones will die off. The plant will go dormant until the spring. So, it is a beautiful flowering perennial plant.
I’ve read that the Ginger Lily is well known in Hawaii and is called the “Awapuhi”. The gel solution from the pinecones is known to have good properties for your skin and hair. Hawaiians have used it as a shampoo. I will have to try it in my hair. The gel is also edible, but I don’t think I’ll eat or cook with the gel.
I’ve also learned that the Ginger Lily’s leaves and stems can be used in cooking. The leaves are used to wrap around the meat of pork or fish and roasted in an oven.
Although I’ve never tried cooking with it, but I imagine I would wrap the meat with the leaves and put it on the rack or tray and keep some type of consommé or broth in a pot at the bottom of the oven to keep the meat moist while it’s roasting all day. The super tender meat would have a nice tropical ginger taste. This seems like a nice plan, and I might have to try this and create a recipe!
I love this plant and the flowers are unique like I've never seen before. I've never seen this plant sold anywhere in the nurseries here in Florida. But it is growing beautifully in my garden.
It was a complete joy taking all these pictures, while observing and recording each stage of its maturity from the baby plants sprouting in May to full grown with the beautiful red pinecones in September.
I hope you enjoyed viewing the photos and learning about my beautiful Ginger Lily garden.
