Hedychium coccineum Tara - Ginger Lily

The Hedychium coccineum 'Tara', also known as Red Ginger Lily, is a very beautiful perennial plant with a strong exotic appearance but much hardier than the cannas that are often preferred. This ornamental ginger forms strong, slender yet flexible stems, adorned with long, glossy green leaves, and produces large, pendulous spikes of butterfly-like flowers in late summer, in a yellow-orange colour. A centrepiece in a tropical-inspired flower bed, even in northern continental Europe!

Hedychium coccineum is a rhizomatous plant native to mountainous areas of Southern China (Guangxi, Tibet, Yunnan), the Himalayas, India, and Indochina. It grows on forest edges and in high-altitude meadows, preferring open spaces rather than the depth of the undergrowth. The 'Tara' cultivar is a particularly hardy horticultural selection, bearing numerous bright orange flowers. 'Tara' will eventually form an imposing clump, 70 to 90 cm (28 to 35in) wide, composed of leafy stems that can reach up to 1.20 m (4ft) in height. Flowering occurs in late August in mild climates, and in September elsewhere. The inflorescence, which can measure up to 30 cm (12in), is composed of numerous small light orange flowers, somewhat resembling those of gauras with their compound structure of small petals surrounding prominent, 7 cm (3in) long stamens. They attract many bees. The leaves, arranged oppositely, are long and narrow, a light and glossy green, and somewhat resemble a fishbone. The plant disappears in autumn but regrows from the stump in spring.

These superb perennial plants, which we use abundantly in our exotic garden, thrive in rich and deep soil, never lacking water during the growing season, and in a warm exposure, as the flowers, all more or less fragrant, bloom late in our garden. In warmer regions, they are likely to appear as early as August. In the garden, one can create a tropically inspired flower bed by associating, for example, Hedychium 'Tara' with a Chinese palm tree, a Japanese banana tree, against a backdrop of giant cannas. In mild climates, the 'Tara' ornamental ginger will accompany the flowering of abutilons, cassia, lantana, brugmansia, or even the lesser-known Iochroma cyaneum.