hi the pictures are very pretty . i just started getting ginger .i am trying to get alot started i think they are so pretty . thanks for shareing your pictures . really makes me want a ginger garden now

thanks connie

Hi Scott,
Wow!!! That is a gorgeous curcuma. I'm sure you're proud!!

Very nice, looks like a C. aurantiaca form or hybrid. Is this some of the new material from Thailand?

Hey Dave,
Yes, this is a hybrid that Tim imported this year as a new introduction. I have C. aurantiaca which I always enjoy every year, but the "Sulee" is what I would describe as a definate notch up, it's just really breathtaking in person. Tim has had computer problems the last few days, but he should step in with a little more information about it soon. I thought Tim had a "Sulee rainbow" in your box of stuff in Houston?

It is nice indeed. Looks like it has the pink coma bracts from Curcuma alismatifolia at the top and then the aurantiaca below, plus the beautiful foliage of C. aurantiaca.

No, did not get one of those. Tim gave me some C. thorellii that is blooming now and also C. harmondii. I am really more interested in the species than the hybrids.

BTW, two of the rhizomes I bought last spring from Buried Treasures (the order that Tim split on the shipping from Thailand) turned out to be the wrong plants. I don't know whether the fault was with the Thai supplier or with Buried Treasures, but they were not as pictured at all.

Still having ethernet card problems ...mainly in the form of idiots sending me a windows only part for a macintosh...from a macitosh only mailorder company!!! arghh.

anyway. a few notes.

Sulee Rainbow is a hybrid between C. cordata and another species that looks like C. aurantiaca..color wise. I think it is the same species that was posted in the "Is the C. cordata" post. It is EXTREMELY variable in the wild some orange and purple, orange and blue, green and white, all pink, some just like the photo, etc. etc. and that is in one small patch.

Buried Treasures: they are only resellers, and don't grow any material out themselves. There are taxonomy issues on some of the thai grower's stuff. If you know the plants, its no big deal (to correct that is). Their photos aren't always right. Just out of curiosity, what did you get from them. I can assure you the Kaempferia are very wrong, and some of the Globba. With the stuff from thailand (are any supplier for that) there are occasional rhizomes the get mixed up, but usually everything is labeled as is should be. I've had a few pinks show up in a box of whites, etc. nothing major though. I won't go into the copyright infringements on my Curcuma photos though...

I'll post some of the new stuff I'm working on once I get somebody to send my the right card sometime in this lifetime!

Tim Chapman

I bought several of them from Chris at Buried Treasures.

Globba 'Compact Pink' - photo looked like one of the G. winitii types, but it turned out to be Globba globulifera, or whatever Kyle has determined for that one.

Curcuma 'Chiang Mai Pink' turned out to have white coma bracts instead of pink, and looks like the one they are calling Curcuma alismatifolia 'Tropical Snow'

Curcuma 'Blushing Star' - also turned out to have white coma bracts, similar to 'Tropical Snow'

Curcuma cordata in the white form - turned out correct, it's blooming beautifully right now.

Curcuma 'Kimono Pink'- very long scapes, nice plant.

Kaempferia 'Bicolor' - looks like a K. pulchra form, but I really have trouble recognizing the fine differences in the patterns. Would like your opinion on it. Click the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kaempferia pulchra 'Bicolor'

Curcuma alismatifolia:

"Blushing Star" (I'm about 90% sure) this is actually "Snow White" the red blushing only comes out in full sun, and probably not on the younger plants as they are all from tissue culture this year..ie second year growth. I would imagine once they are in the division stage (ie larger rhizomes) it will be more obvious. The name of this selection was renamed by this particular supplier (I think, again 90% sure). It is not their exclusive, and the original developer named it "Snow White" which is what everyone else calls it.

Kimono is great, didn't think I'd like the dwarfs but its beautiful. Can't say what happened with the pink one.

Kaempferia pulchra bicolor does not exist, that is a form of K. elegans, an unnamed variety. You can tell K. elegans forms from the somewhat elevated or at least noticeable purple stigma (K "green ripple" "shazam" "son of shazam" "satin checks" "brushstrokes" etc. The photo they used is of a much rarer form that nobody is selling. I hope to have a few of them next year maybe. 2005 will be the year that the MOST INCREDIBLE form of K. elegans is released... unbelievable, amazing, awesome!!! Haven't thought of a name for it yet, but just waiting to hear that its in the lab clean.. might be awhile though....not too mention the second coolest Boesenbergia ever seen (hopefully the coolest will make it hear... but its probably rotten in New York thanks to some moronic DHL employees).

As for the Globba, he used the same photo of the winitii clones for the "compacta"s and the winitii clones. None of the Globba are Id'ed correctly, none. (this comes from the thai side too). I have all of this stuff, but rhizomes of Globba for the most part are usually too small to offer. A few are, but its better to sell as plants or as second year rhizomes. Again the thai stuff is usually good material (from the right people), one just needs to know what everything really is before its let go.

This particular source is actually run by very good people, just need some work on the taxonomy. I've helped them with several names etc... some got used some didn't, but in time hopefully most will be labeled correctly.

Tim Chapman

That's gorgeous! I've only just started growing curcumas. Those pics will make me want to get some more.

I know have a group of them blooming, very impressive as such.
I'll have to shoot some more photos. Thanks Tim for a great introduction.
Scott

Can someone I.D. this curcuma I just bought.
Thanks

Here is a link that might be useful: curcuma

Isn't Sulee's Rainbow great? I have had it 3 years. Its in bloom now too. I love it. I had started to be indifferent about Curcuma til I got Sulee's Rainbow.