It is a testament to the gardening-crazed culture of the Bay Area that when you say the word "ginger," people are as likely to think of the plant as the spice. With ginger's often striking tropical ...

A genuine elixir of youth.This is how shell ginger -also known as Alpinia zerumbet - is usually presented, a plant straight from Japan that is said to increase life expectancy. The ingredient, which ...

Shell ginger blooms after two years of growth, so don’t expect to see its shiny pink flowers, arranged in a tapering cone, in the summer immediately after a freeze. But one winter without a killing ...

That said, let’s talk about some lovely species that make excellent garden specimens, some of which are well suited to spectacular cut flower arrangements. One of my personal favorites is shell ginger ...