Yellow Ginger Lily
Family
Zingiberaceae
Origin
Hawaiian
Description
Hedychium are rhizomatous perennials with erect, unbranched stems bearing two ranks of lance-shaped leaves, and dense terminal racemes of showy, often fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers
'Kahili Garland-lily' is a clump-forming perennial with stems to 2.5 m in height, and glossy, lance-shaped, mid-green leaves 2' in length but relatively narrow (4-6 inches wide) with entire margins and pointed tips.
Up to 50 flowers are borne in erect, dense, 1 -2 foot tall cylindrical racemes at the tips of the stems. The bright yellow flowers, each with a single, prominent stamen, emerge from cylindrical cones of green bracts. Narrow green bracts subtend each group of one or two flowers. Each flower has three large petals (inner tepals) that are fused together at the base into a narrow tube and a fourth, two-lobed, spoon-shaped tepal (a labellum) that is centrally tinged orange. The inconspicuous outer tepals are fused into a tube. The flowers have a strong, sweetly scented fragrance.
The flowers of butterfly ginger lily attract hummingbirds and other pollinators and also make beautiful cut flowers.
Environment
Most Gingers need 2-4 hours of cool direct sunlight , i.e., early morning sunlight or filtered shade throughout the day. Gingers are fairly drought resistant once well-established but often have the best foliage and flower best under average moist to moist conditions with acidic or mildly acidic and fertile soils. When the flowers are all spent, cut off the stem to allow the plant s energy to direct towards the rhizomes. Keep the foliage well tended until it dies back, as it will keep collecting solar energy to store for the next season s bloom.
Kahili Garland Lily grows well in cooler climates.
Landscape Use
Ginger plants can be grown in containers and brought indoors for the cool seasons. Ideal for Border, Container, Ground cover, Massing
