The Plan...

Because a lot of hedychiums bloom too late in the year October-on - (incidentally also one of my favourite albums by Barclay James Harvest ) it would be great to get them all to be in bloom for the August Bank Holiday weekend so that you can invite people to be amazed by your skill and by these incredible plants. A cold winter can slow the ones that do flower down and make them late. If you dry the corms and them get them growing in the spring they still come on too late. I have found that with a couple of plants (pink hybrid and lemon sherbet) keeping them growing in a heated greenhouse brings flowering forward from October to mid August but only if they stay in the greenhouse and bake until late july and then get bedded out. The pink hybrid even repeated in mid september. If the plant is too crowded in the pot it makes thin non-flowering shoots. Can we use a heated greenhouse to get hedychiums to flower early, what is the best technique? Lets see what happens!

You will need...

A greenhouse 6ft X 8ft will be sufficient (even 6 X 4 will be fine).

Electrical supply to house.

2KW heater with thermostat (under £20 from B&Q - other DIY stores are available)

Half a dozen 25 30 (not the deep ones with handles) or 40 litre pots £5 to £8 each l- try ebay or hart canna (other suppliers are available).

Compost.

Hedychium plants. As a general idea have a lot of plants (Say half a dozen or more) see our suppliers on link page, but here are some suggestions:

Good...

1. Devon Cream (might be sold as Dixter), St Martin's Hybrid, Tresco. These are almost identical

2. Any of these corelii, gold spot, pink hybrid, lemon sherbet, samsheri, ellipticum, kinkaku, any of the Tai hybrids, Daniel Weeks, white starburst, maximum or anything that looks good. I've recommended these as they look likely to flower early enough. Coronarium and flavescens could be worth a go but might be a bit late.

Bad (but not ugly)

Tara, forestii, spicatum or any form of densiflorum as these will flower if left outside. They are well worth growing so get some and plant them outside anyway (make another visit to your bank manager if necessary).

Elizabeth as this wretched plant is so reluctant to flower and because it has been recommended so highly elsewhere has led a number of people to give up on hedychiums thinking this is the best it gets. If there is a hedychium which deserves to be burnt at the stake this is it. (That said one seems to be in bud now - end of August - No, in September the flowers opened and it was just a coronarium).

Any dried rhizomes bought off ebay from abroad - they can be very poor forms and often dead before they get to you. The same applies to dried up rhyzomes bought in plastic bags in garden centres. Bear in mind that unless you go to a specialist you will probably get a mis-labelled disappointment.

What to do...

The experiment is as follows...

Get plant with a few shoots and put in oversized pots in October, either bought or dug up corners of existing with new shoots (hedychiums send these up in Autumn (see next page - when I've done it!). Keep them growing for the winter in greenhouse heated to approx 5 degrees minimum. Water moderately and from Easter feed with high potash (tomorite - other high potash feeds are available) fertiliser weekly. Keep in until mid to late July when some will, with luck, be forming buds. Bed out in well dug soil, could be a raised bed or south facing bank or anywhere, ideally in full sun. Enjoy the flowers and then repeat digging up a corner of the clump in October - leave most of it in to see if it will flower outside the next year.

I will keep you posted here and on the next page of the progress. If anyone out there is also trying it please let me know how you get on. If anyone local (Devon) is giving it a go I might be able to let you have some bits of samsheri, pink hybrid and lemon sherbet to play with if you can pick them up.

February 2012

All fine in greenhouse. I've even dug up my genuine Elizabeth (the one that flowered turned out to be a bog standard coronarium) to see if it works with that one. I'll put up some pictures of the plants snug in the greenhouse over the next few weeks.