Red tops

Costus woodsonii

[Red Button Ginger, Spiral Ginger, Scarlet Spiral Flag]
Origin: Central America

First saw this at SisL's garden. Failed to propagate it, so I bought it.

The Spiral Ginger is of no-relation to the ginger that we use for our culinary dishes. The plant is also commonly known as Red Button Ginger, Panamian Candle Ginger, Dwarf French Kiss or by any other names. Botanically, the plant is call Costus Woodsonii from the Costaceae family, sister family of the true gingers, the Zingiberaceae.

The Spiral Ginger is an all year blooming plant. Native to Central America, it is an attractive small plant that can reach to the height of approximately 3ft tall (approx 1 metre). The brightly red heads that looks like cones do create a very nice contrast to the green shiny foliage on spiral stems. Flowers will emerge from between the bracts of the cone from colours of yellow to orange.

Propagation is by stem cuttings or plantlets that appeared from the matured dried-up flower cones onto well-drained medium. The plant is a fast grower and loves rich moist medium but not wet. To produce thick healthy plant stems,it's best to fertlise the medium once every 2 or 3 weeks. The Spiral Ginger plant prefers shade with indirect sunlight and grows well in containers

Love the following picture I took at SisL's during CNY.