Fall means Gingers are going dormant

Posted on November 7, 2011 by David

With the onset of cool weather in the fall means that deciduous gingers are shutting down and storing their energy into their rhizomes. Once the foliage starts to wither you can cut it away and then mulch the beds with 3-4 inches of good seasoned mulch. If your using pot culture trim the foliage back and then store the pots just above freezing in a dry location like a garage or basement.
If you live in zone 7a or colder you will want to dig up the rhizomes after the first hard frost and store them in dry bark mulch. The easiest way to do this is to place just slightly moistened bark mulch in the bottom of a plastic container, place the rhizomes on top of the mulch and then cover completely with the remaining mulch. Check it occasionally to make sure the mulch doesn’t get bone dry. Store in a place that doesn’t freeze.
This is also the time of year when we begin selling our Gingers as rhizomes rather than plants with roots and foliage. The great advantage to buying now is that you receive a large rhizome at a reduced price and a lower shipping cost. We have a large selection and guarantee our rhizomes will sprout in the spring or we will replace them. They are shipped already prepared for storage, just store them above freezing and spend your winter planning the placement of your newest Ginger acquisitions!

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Ginger Festival Update

Posted on August 30, 2011 by David

Here are written directions from I-59 and I-45 for those of you who can make it to our Festival- From the Houston area take I-59N to the 2nd exit in Cleveland which is FM 2025 to Coldspring and turn left. Go 5 miles to a Valero Gas Station on the left and turn left on FM 945 and go 7.8 miles to Magnolia Trail on your right- we are the 1st drive on the right. You will pass a small store on the right about a mile before you get to Magnolia Trl and right before our street you will see a large green county sign that says Vann Beil Rd to the left, just past it is our dirt road. There are several black mailboxes also.
Take I-45 to Hwy 150 and go East to Evergreen. In Evergreen take a right on FM 945 and go 5.3 miles to our street, Magnolia Trail. Directly across from our street is a county road sign showing Vann Beil Rd to your right, turn left into street. If your heading north from the Houston area on I-45 you can take 1097 in Willis over to Hwy 150. If your heading south from the Dallas/FW area take 150 in New Waverly.
We will have 2′ nursery logo signs at the turns on 945 and at Magnolia Trail.

Here is the schedule of events:

10:00am- Greetings, refreshments, and brief tours of the farm.

11:00am- Lecture on Gingers and first plant drawing

12:00-2:00 Lunch

2:00pm- Compost Tea brewing demonstration

3:00pm- Lecture on Gingers and 2nd plant drawing

4:00pm- Animal encounters

5-7:00pm Open 3rd Plant drawing

Plants for the drawings will include a large Amorphophallus paeoniifolius or Corpse Lily, a 3 gal Costus longibracteatus ‘Kiss of Death’, Zingiber newmanii ‘Red Frogs’, and several other rare gingers.

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1st Annual Ginger Festival Sept 3rd

Posted on August 4, 2011 by David

We are holding our 1st Annual Ginger Festival here at our nursery on Sept. 3rd from 10:00am to 7:00pm. You can find directions either by using Google Maps and entering “Tejas Tropicals” or by going to the “Events” tab on our website.

Come enjoy a full day of viewing gingers and other cold hardy tropical plants at their peak of bloom. We’ll also have demonstrations, lectures, free drawings, exotic animal viewings, fishing in the pond, and of course plants to buy. We will be serving a free lunch of barbeque pork sandwiches and a variety of sides from 12:00 to 2:00pm. More details will be posted as the date draws closer. So put it on your calendar and come enjoy the day with us. We look forward to meeting all of you.

 

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Kaempferias, the Peacock Gingers

Posted on July 8, 2011 by David

Kaempferias are low growing woodland denizens of the monsoonal tropics that possess beautifully patterned foliage and unique leaf shapes and position. Their leaves can be erect and upright as with parviflora or rotunda, semi-erect as with elegans or pulchra, or completely prostrate and sucked down flat against the soil as with roscoeana and galanga. The flowers are presented prior to the leaves coming out of dormancy or throughout the growing season as a sweet addition to the foliar display. Because of their monsoonal dry season dormancy they are generally cold hardy through zone 8 and thrive in the summer heat, unlike Hostas which they are frequently likened to.

'Krachai Dom'

Kaempferia parviflora 'Krachai Dom'

One of our favorite uprights is a parviflora we have been growing that has large leaves that are slightly pleated, vee planed from the midvein, and have rosey under leafs and red edging on the surface. The flowers are borne throughout the growing season from the rhizome within a tube like structure at the base of the plant. They are orchid like and are white with a purple throat.

 

 

 

Kaempferia sp. 'Huai Lod'

Kaempferia sp. 'Huai Lod'

A spectacular semi-erect Kaempferia is an unknown species we are increasing numbers of at our nursery. It resembles a Kaempferia Tom Wood named K. sp. ‘Red Knight’. The leaves are a dark green with a deep red midvein that bleeds into the main leaf with varying degrees on each plant. We have been selecting ones that have at least 50% red bleeding into the leaf, they are just beautiful. These flower prior to the leaves developing in the spring and are about 2-3 inches that are white with a blue/purple throat. Tom’s ‘Red Knight’ had a pure white flower so this one remains a mystery, a wonderful mystery.

Kaempferia roscoeana 'Patterned Plate'

Kaempferia roscoeana 'Patterned Plate'

The most amazing looking of the Kaempferias to me are the prostrate or flat leaved species. One I really like is roscoeana ‘Patterned Plate’. The leaves are round and in sets of two that oppose each other. Ours have varying amounts of grey/silver rays that create bands across the leaf surface. Since the round leaf is sucked down against the soil surface it looks like a small round watermelon was semi buried in your garden bed. The flowers are pretty round petaled white day flowers that bloom throughout the growing season.

I’ve just scratched the surface of this genus of gingers. They make wonderful woodland or shady garden specimens. They are hardy, heat lovers with incredible beauty that are sure to stand out in your garden.

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Summertime is Gingertime

Posted on June 7, 2011 by David

With the heat of summer settling in across the country it’s the start of another ginger season. Most gingers thrive in the heat of the summer and many bloom from now until your first frost.

The early blooming Curcumas flowers are fading and the large paddle shaped foliage is in its final stage of development, with their red midveins and bright red stems beginning to steal the show.

The shade loving Globbas are starting to bloom with  glorious pendant flowers hanging from their delicate looking pseudostems. We are especially impressed with two Globbas we are growing this year named Globba sp. ‘Blue Hawaii’ and Globba sp. ‘Grandiflora’. They both are heavy bloomers and the cut flowers last for 4-6 weeks!

Globba grandiflora

Globba grandiflora

Globba sp. 'Blue Hawaii'

Globba sp. 'Blue Hawaii'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the best sun loving gingers is in full bloom now and will last until first frost, Curcuma alismatifolia or commonly referred to as the Siam Tulip. These make fabulous displays in beds or in containers. They come in a variety of sizes and colors from white, pink, deep pink, green, green stripes, and violet. It doesn’t get much better than a bed of bright pink tulips (Siam) blooming all summer long.

Curcuma alismatifolia 'Chiang Mai Ruby'

Curcuma alismatifolia 'Chiang Mai Ruby'

Curcuma alismatifolia 'Maejo Mont Blanc'

Curcuma alismatifolia 'Maejo Mont Blanc'

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Zilker Garden Festival

Posted on May 1, 2011 by David

This was our first year to attend and participate in the Zilker Garden Festival held at the beautiful Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin, Texas. It’s an annual event that brings together over 150 vendors, lecturers, and gardeners from around Texas to revel in the Spring. We had a booth where we sold dormant ginger rhizomes and we also gave a lecture on Cold Hardy Gingers.

We had an excellent turnout both for the lecture and the booth. More gardeners are beginning to understand the marvel of gingers and there ability to thrive in temperate climates, even though they are true tropicals. I really enjoyed meeting some very nice folks, especially a wonderful group of Master Gardeners who contribute much of there time and energy to the Zilker gardens. We hope it’s the first of many more festivals for us.

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Advantages of Dormant Rhizomes vs Small Container Plants

Posted on May 1, 2011 by David

 

We are often asked why we sell dormant rhizomes and if there are any advantages to purchasing them. Let’s begin by explaining what a dormant rhizome is. Rhizomes resemble tubers or odd shaped bulbs and are the growing structure of many cold hardy tropical plants, especially gingers. During the dry season in their native haunts or during winter here, they go naturally dormant, dumping all of their built up energy into the rhizome. A storage system if you will.

various rhizomes

various rhizomes

This dormant rhizome now holds all the stored energy of a full grown plant in a relatively small bulb or tuber. You can now buy and ship this small rhizome for a very reasonable price, much less than a full grown plant. You can store it above freezing in its dormant state until spring. Once planted it begins its growing cycle again.

 

 

 

Zingiber collinsii 'Silver Streaks'

Rhizomes vs. tissue cultures

 

 

Many nurseries sell small plants in the early spring, mostly tissue cultures. There’s nothing wrong with these but they do usually take a full growing season to reach maturity. Rhizomes on the other hand, because they have all the stored energy of the mature plant, reach a mature plant very quickly and bloom in the same year. Last year we took some pictures of Zingiber collinsii to demonstrate this point. The plant on the left was acquired as a tissue culture plant in a 3.5” container at the same time as the rhizome on the right was planted in its container. These two plants were grown in the same potting media and were fertilized at the same rate throughout the growing season. The photo was taken in early fall. I think the results speak for themselves. This is why we offer such a large selection of rare and hard to find dormant rhizomes harvested straight from our grow beds every fall. Try a few and you’ll be a believer too.

 

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Why does Tejas Tropicals bareroot their plants?

Posted on May 1, 2011 by David

First things first, let me explain what we mean by bareroot. We grow most of our plants in 5 foot wide growing beds. These are organically maintained and have deep rich humus soils and plants grow large and healthy in them. We dig large plants from these beds, loosely remove the soil and gently wrap the rootball in moist composted potting media for shipping. These plants are mature and healthier than most plants grown in containers. This is what we call bareroot.

There are several advantages for our customers with these plants. They are blooming sized plants and as already stated, they are healthier for being grown with organic practises in rich soils rather than being confined in a container with sterile potting mix.

Packing and shipping bare root

Packing and shipping bare root

With barerooting your not paying for a pot full of heavy soil and its easier to pack them securely within their shipping boxes for a safe arrival at your home. Additionally, we can fit more plants in a single box because we can snuggle them together further reducing your shipping costs.

Packing and shipping 3.5" containers

Packing and shipping 3.5" containers

We do still ship our cuttings and seedlings in 3.5” containers and they are priced accordingly but most of our larger plants are sold barerooted to give you the best value in all cases. We do use container sizes on the website to help give you an expectation of actual size. I hope this helps you understand our reasons for, and advantages of, barerooting our plants to give you the largest, healthiest, and most economical plants available.

 

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