| There are some like Kaemferia (peacock gingers) that can be used as houseplants that are smallish growing for the most part, with attractive patterened leaves, but they like a dormant period, as they tend, like curcumas, to be naturally deciduous. Here in FL, they go down in the first real frost and come back up in late March/early April. Hedychiums (butterfly gingers) are evergreen, and many people grow them in large pots, but they may be too large growing for your purpose. Zingiber "Midnight" is a very attractive plant with deep green, almost black leaves that has lovely basilar "pinecone" leaves that come out yellow and fade tp a delectable cotton candy pink, and it might be a place for you to use. It is naturally deciduous to some degree, but never goes completely down, there is new growth coming out to replace the old canes that go down. This plant was being touted here the last 2 years as being hardy but it isn't, it has a very poor rate of return compared to other zingibers like Z. zerumbet, Z. "Milky Way", or even the common edible ginger from the supermarket (Z. officinale). I have had a large specimen in my greenhouse for 2 years and it always looks fabulous. SOme lovely plants that do make good houseplants are the Stromanthe, related to gingers. I may have a photo of it on my website, I can't remember: bihaisrainforest.4t.com |
