Carol, those blooms look pretty and if they smell nice , the better!

I have the Tea Olive too and I just remember that they don't smell very much in my garden either.:) And they are not photogenic.

Silvia

I don't have any. Just tons of pinecone ginger.

Carol what are those pretty pink flowers behind the ginger?

Silvia, I really got snookered (weird word, right?) by some of the posts on the [Fragrant Plants forum[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/fragrant-plants-dsbr0-bd~t_29880). I thought Tea Olives and jasminum sambac 'Grand Duke Supreme' and 'Maid of Orleans' were going to be the be-all-end-all of scented plants in my yard. They are all three fine plants and smell nice if you get right up close, but the butterfly ginger runs circles around them.

Meg, it's amazing how far the scent carries. And I didn't know it would grow well in a pot. Have you had it in a pot for a long time? And has done ok? Do you have to water daily? How much sun does it get?

Bea, pinecone gingers are nice, too. I have a few and like the red color in the fall. The pink flowers in the background are pentas lanceolata, commonly known as tall pentas, butterfly pentas or heirloom pentas. Once established, they grow much taller than graffiti pentas and bloom profusely. A nice plant. Not cheap for a bedding plant - run around $4.99-$5.99 each right now and usually can only be found in nicer nurseries. Have never seen them in any of the big box stores. A little difficult to root from cuttings. I couldn't get any to root when I started them in any kind of mix so I now start them in water and pot them up when I get water roots. I get about 50% to root that way. I potted up two of four cuttings today. I let them grow in the pot for another 2-3 weeks until the roots get thicker and stronger and then I plant them out in the garden. They won't look like much of anything until next year. But I keep them going that way. Sort-of.

Carol

I have a pink shell ginger that someone gave me along time ago.... It doesn't do too well, but that can be on me. I am from the midwest and many things I know how to grow, don't do well in Florida sand. However, I going to retire and hope I will have more time for gardening. What is the best way to care for the ginger I have, and the white ginger you have. I have many roses, and they do pretty well. I like things that are beautiful and smell great. I am wondering if these plants would do well under a banyan tree. My tree is very large, and I could put it either in a shady area, or a semi shade area.

Thanks for any help.

Sharon

Carol,

I've had it in that pot for about 3 years. It started out as just two stems mixed with some other foliage plants. Now, it has filled the pot and the other plants are just remnants. I don't mind that though since the ginger is so nice. The plant was a pass-along from my Sister's neighbor and I knew I needed to grow it in a pot to control it. It is in basically full sun cut by whatever amount the screen blocks. The pot is set up with the drainage a few inches up the side, not the bottom, to make a reservoir of sorts and it needs water every 5 to 7 days, less in the cooler months. (It can get a little droopy if I'm late.)

I used to have shampoo ginger but it disappeared during reconstruction of the house back in 2005. I do have a cone ginger, it has pink cones...it crawled under the fence from the neighbors' and liked my yard better since there is none in the neighbors yard anymore and it is all in mine. Still waiting for it to bloom this year. My potted daylilies took the year off too, lots of greenery but no flowers.

Yes, there's nothing that smells as nice as butterfly ginger. McKee Garden in Vero used to have a bunch of those big Chinese ceramic fish bowls planted with them around the patio they used for events and they smelled just heavenly.

I love butterfly ginger. In SC, there was a park near my house that had a little pond where a huge clump of it grew and it always smelled so luscious.