Beehive ginger

Botanical name: Zingiber spectabile

Other names: Ginger wort, Malaysian ginger

Beehive ginger will really stand out in your garden, whether in your yard, in raised beds, or in pots on your deck, porch, or balcony. Beehive ginger is hard to miss! It’s is a wildly famous ornamental plant because of its unusual bract that looks like a beehive; it changes from yellow to red as the plant matures. A bract is a set of modified leaves that, in a cluster, resemble a flower.

Some beehive ginger cultivars produce bracts that develop in yellow, gold, and pink. Those plants are often called pinecone ginger. Pinecone ginger can grow to 7 feet tall, and the secretions from the bracts are often used in shampoo. The whole plant smells like ginger, and you can use both the leaves and the rhizomes in cooking. The beehive/pinecone bracts can make good cut flowers, too—and you can eat them!

Characteristics:

• Prefers indirect sunlight; direct sunlight can burn it
• Grows best in a humid climate
• Leaves and rhizomes are good in cooking
• Grows to about 6 feet tall
• Bracts and flowers make nice flower arrangements

Have you tried growing beehive ginger? How do you use it? Please tell us your experiences growing beehive ginger.