ANOTHER 'POOPY' PLANT-DICHORISANDRA THYRSIFLORA

A couple of days after blogging about campanula 'pink octopus', Peggy my 'partner-in-crime' dragged me into the greenhouses telling me I had to see this ginger that was brought to her attention by a customer on one of the days that I was off. Peggy mentioned the customer was looking for a blue ginger, one with a true blue flower that was absolutely gorgeous. Well Peggy looked and found the blue ginger in our greenhouses in our part sun section. She brought me into the part sun greenhouses to show me the dichorisandra thyrsiflora 'blue ginger'. She said she did not want to be accused of 'holding out on me' again. Upon seeing them I mentioned "oh I have one of those" to which she replied "of course you do" and then I explained that I had grown one in a pot in an eastern exposure last year. It didn't really do much of anything that season and I had decided it was another 'poopy' plant so in the fall when bringing things inside for the winter I decided this one was not worth the space in my small back room where I winter things over. I put the pot up against a south facing wall on my back deck to give it at least a fighting chance that winter. The funny thing was just the day before Peggy pointed it out to me I had noticed that it had popped up out of the dirt in the pot that was still against the south wall of my deck so it had indeed survived the winter outside in a pot. Upon googling it again I was reminded why I had wanted one in the first place. A true blue is very hard to find in the gardening world and the flower on 'blue ginger' is a particularly gorgeous flower.

Whew, that was a long explanation...are you still with me? After all that talk about ginger I have to tell you dichorisandra thyrsiflora is not a ginger at all but rather it is in the same family as wandering jew, commelinaceae, the family of spiderworts though it does resemble ginger in height and in habit. It dies back to the ground here but I have read they make a great houseplant and many more forgiving and patient people bring them inside in the fall where they will bloom early winter and since they only don't really need direct sunlight an eastern facing window would be fine for them. In researching blue ginger I have learned that they are very easily propagated from stem cuttings taken at any time of the year. I think this year I will most certainly bring it inside and let it overwinter in one of the two eastern facing windows I have.