Tell us more about your growing conditions. Is it indoors or outdoors? Is it in a pot or in the ground (seeing as how you are from NYC I assume it is in a pot)? How much sun does it get? How often do you water it? The more we know about your plant the more we can help. Plants look unhealthy and have brown edged leaves for hundreds of reasons. Only by knowing the details of your particular situation can we help you with your problem.

Kyle

Thanks, Kyle, I should have been more specific.

Yes, I'm growing it indoors. Took it out of the pot, and the roots are perfectly healthy, so it's not a watering problem.

Have been confused about how much light to give it, so have tried under lights and then at a window which is open, so the temperature there is cool.

Must be either a light or temperature problem.

I would guess low humidity is causing the leaves to turn brown at the edges. Do you give it lots of fertilizer? You shouldn't indoors, but if you did it could be fertilizer burn (except that the roots would probably appear damaged).

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of hope for it blooming for you indoors. In tropical areas this species is grown as a garden plant, often in full sun. If you have a balcony put it out there for the summer. If not then try to give it as much light as possible.

-Kyle

I've tried to grow these here in Florida. Once the temps get to about 55 deg. and we lose the humidity (1st cold fronts come in)Zap! They die.
I'd only try this plant if I had a greenhouse.
kevin

Since I'm growing indoors, under lights, with humidifiers, I'm not worried about the short growing season outdoors here. The amount of light and humidity can be easily controlled.

Anything can be grown indoors given the right conditions.

What I cannot do here is grow plants that require cool temperatures during the summer--putting them in a room with a blasting air conditioner that dehumidifies the air just doesn't work. I know, I've tried with Masdevallias.

Anyone else grow this indoors? What kind of light?

I agree with you to a point about controling indoor growing conditions, except as far as I know you have limits of how much bright light you can get from standard gro-lites. I read recently that from a four tube fixture of 4 forty watt tubes you only get a little over 300 foot candles of light, and though that's fine for plants growing withing a few inches of the tubes it's still not bright enough for some orchids and other sun lovers, that require 1,000 plus ft.candles to flower. For large plants it's only the uppermost leaves that will get those 300 ft. candles whereas even a foot lower on the plant the light will drop in half and near the bottom the lowest leaves never get anywhere near the light intensity they need. Yes, you can get those intensities with "high intensity" incandescent bulbs like halides and sodium high intensity, but those are quite expensive to operate and can get very hot!! I did manage to get a costus ginger to flower indoors , but the flourescent lighting was only supplemental and the plant also got lots of side lighting from a "full sun" south window for several months during the winter.

I was brought a root cutting of Alpinia purpurea from Hawaii last year and it came with cultural instructions. I can't remember all off-hand but it did specify that it should not be placed in direct bright sunlight. Having googled it I found it originates in the Malaysian rainforest and it's thin leaves also suggest it like a higher humidity. So, mine sits on a north-facing windowsill and gets misted every morning (having gone through the brown-edged leaf too-low humidity thing)and is now very happy. Hope this helps.

I have grown these gingers for over 10 years. Not that I am an expert, LOL because I am not. But, you will probably go through a very very long haul with your plant before you get it to bloom, especially if it was a plant that came from tissue culture origins. Those tend to be a lot weaker than ones propagated from rhizome division.

They grow in a very tight clump, and when grown in a container, if they are happy, they will fill the container quickly. But, this isn't always good, because they will fill it with very small diameter canes. Then you have to keep repotting and/or dividing the plant.

What you need to have to get blooms is a larger plant, about 4-5 feet tall with canes the diameter of at least the small end of a pool cue. This takes time. I am not certain if you are aware, but these plants get massive. I have had them in the greenhouse with 10-12 ft tall canes and blooms over a foot tall. They are not really well suited to growing in a house, even with augmented lighting conditions. They like a lot of sun, a lot of humidity, a lot of water, and they are very heavy feeders under the right conditions.

At any rate, A. purpurata has to be at least 2 full years old to bloom. They only bloom on 'old growth' so your plant has to have some age to it.

Oh, and they don;t die at 55F. They will survive in the ground here (I have them planted at my house and have for many years), they freeze to the ground and come back from the rhizome mass. But, as said before, once they lose their topgrowth and have to come back, its bye bye any hope of blooms. Only way to get blooms on plants in the ground is live in zone 9B-11 or have a greenhouse