Photographed yesterday evening in the Asian Garden, Roscoea is one of the few members of the Zingiberaceae (the ginger family) that can be grown outside of tropical / subtropical climates, owing to the fact that it is a high altitude plant in its native range. The name of the genus honours William Roscoe, an English lawyer, politician and botanist. Roscoe was also the founder of Liverpool's first botanic garden.
Photography resource link: Boring Photographs is an article by Petteri Sulonen on the art of photography. Sulonen: “Something horrible tends to happen to people when they suddenly realize that the camera they hold can produce things that are pretty in and of themselves. They suddenly stop making interesting pictures -- the pictures that fill their albums, tell stories, evoke emotions, preserve memories. They go into a rictus of squeezing out endless flower macros and portraits of ducks.”
Stick with the flower macros - they're fine with me. Though if you want to throw in a few duck portraits that would be OK too.
I'm not a botanist just a nature lover. I enjoy the introduction to plants that are unknown to me. Thank you
The trick is to make macro photos of things that matter to you.... I'll always remember this summer's garden from the close-up of tomato and lettuce that I took while making lunch. :)
This ginger is gorgeous, too...is it hard to find for home cultivation?
Thanks Anthony - I'll see if I can get a duck and duckweed picture one day.
You're welcome, Ruth.
Elaine, a good trick to finding out whether something is relatively easy to find for home cultivation is to do a search on the Royal Horticultural Society Plantfinder. Although it lists UK suppliers of various plants so is of limited use to those outside the UK in that sense, it gives an idea of the relative availability. For example, from the link above, I'd be surprised if Roscoea cautleyoides, an Award of Garden Merit plant, would be difficult to find in North America or Australia since it already has 37 suppliers in the UK.
As for this particular species, we list it as Roscoea sp. because it is yet to be identified (or we're unaware of other institutions / people having identified it based off of the wild collected number EN.2489). So, whether this actual species is widely available in cultivation or not depends on first identifying this plant.
Thank you! Being in Washington state, stuff that's available in the UK can often be a good guide to gardening. :)
Enjoy the photos but would like to learn more about how the plants are being grown if available.
For example with Roscoea, something other than in ordinary garden soil in partial shade! As with this image, would like to know what kind of soil, how deep are the bulbs, what are the footcandles, etc. Get my drift?
Hey Daniel,
You made a nice picture of what I can figure out is Roscoea purpurea.
This is long Type,there are smaller to,even with dark coulored stems.
The reason why react is that you are right about the suppliers in the UK. What you do not know yet (I suppose that) is that I am one the biggest grower of Roscoea's in the Netherlands maybe in Europe.
Growing all under true names.
They even do survived during the last winter here in the netherlands.
There is a book about the Zingiberaceae written by T M E Branney ISBN nr 0-88192-677-9 (9000)
He did not verify it with me so some of the storries about "my creations" are new for me to.
Never the less Roscoea is smashing plant for the garden and flowers a long time is a "stayer" a hardy one ,for sure in the UK. There are storries about the Roscoea cautleyoides "Jeffrey Thomas" in Norway in a garden journal.
If some people need more info let them ask
With flowering regards, René Zijerveld
Hello René - thanks for those comments. From what I can tell, Roscoea purpurea is very variable (esp. in terms of flower colour). We'll have to check it out with that lead.
Also, your post reminded me that I hadn't replied to Jerry. Jerry, as much as I'd like to add horticultural information, I'm not a horticulturist or grower. I write what I know about (which I believe is some sort of writing tenet). On occasion, I push myself to write about things that I sort of understand, but don't want to oblige myself to do so.
Of course, anyone else is free to add that sort of information via the comments.