Ginger is a delicious culinary delight and a beautiful plant that can grow in any garden. There are a lot of plants that are labeled as ginger, but not all of these are tasty. Here are a few common ginger plants and tips to keep them beautiful in our four-season climate.

This is a “true ginger plant”. Zingiber officinale is known as culinary ginger. It grows by rhizomes underground. These specialized roots rapidly spread producing grass-like plants along the way. The roots can be harvested at any time, just dig up a piece! Leave some of the rhizomes in the soil to keep the plant thriving!

Zingiber is a tropical plant and should be grown in a container in our climate if you'd like to keep it alive for next year. Although ginger will sprout back after a light freeze, it will not survive the winter unless it is brought indoors or stored in a cool, dry, freeze-free location (such as your garage) over the winter.

Have you ever seen a ginger plant bloom? True ginger does not produce beautiful fragrant flowers, but they have a close relative, hedychium ginger, that do. Hedychium gingers are grown for their flowers. Although most hedychium are technically edible, gardeners grow them for their looks! They have rhizomes underground that look just like the ginger we eat, but they are more freeze-tolerant.

These plants are tropical perennials and can be grown just like canna plants. Either dig up the roots after the first frost for storage in a frost-free spot or keep the plants in the ground and hope for a mild winter. The roots can survive in a warm part of the garden with mulch in our climate. I kept many of mine in the ground, and they survived our past two (very mild) winters.

The blooms develop in August and September and will continue to bloom until frost. There are plenty of hedychiumginger varieties to choose from. The most popular is the butterfly ginger. It has white flowers that look like its namesake.

This is an edible ginger that survives our winters. Unlike it's tropical cousins that prefer hot sunshine and humid days, these ginger like a spot in the garden with a little more shade. The plant has gorgeous leaves and some varieties have white striping. They are great companion plants with ferns and small growing hostas and reach about 3 feet tall. In late autumn, the plants die back.

Because they're expensive to grow, myoga ginger are usually grown for their pretty looks, but the fresh shoots are edible. The flavor is described as spicy like tropical ginger, but less pungent. The roots are not tasty though.