Category: Uncategorized

Zingiber mioga, commonly known as Japanese Ginger, is a hardy rhizomatous perennial originating from Japan, China, and Korea. It’s an excellent ornamental plant and can add quite a tropical feel in a shady spot where other exotics might not thrive.

The species has green leafy stems to about 1m, 3ft, and pale yellow orchid-like flowers at the base of the plant in September. It’s very hardy and likes woodland conditions in at least partial shade. It doesn’t like to be too wet in the winter. There is a slightly more vigorous form, Z. mioga ‘Crug’s Zing’, collected by the Wynn-Joneses in Korea, which has delicate pink flowers.

There are also three variegated cultivars, ‘Dancing Crane’, ‘Silver Arrow’ and ‘White Feather’. These are still hardy, though not as bone hardy as the species, so a protective winter mulch might be wise in colder areas. Of the three, ‘Dancing Crane’ is the most strongly variegated, with broad white streaks on a slightly shorter growing plant. ‘Silver Arrow’ is also quite distinctive, with marked creamy veining radiating from the leaf base. ‘White Feather’ has a more subtle variegation, with a narrow white edge to the leaves.

The flower buds and young spring shoots are eaten in Japanese and Korean cuisine., and the plant is used medicinally in China. Although related to true ginger, Zingiber officinale, the roots of Zingiber mioga are not edible, and neither are the leaves or stems.

The Japanese name of the plant, Myoga, has a number of stories attached to it. In one, a forgetful disciple of the Buddha struggled to remember his own name. When told to wear a name tag, he would forget that he was wearing it. When he died and was buried, an unfamiliar plant was found growing beside his grave and named ‘Myoga’ (the kanji of which literally mean ‘to carry a name’) in memory of his efforts.

Much later, in the 16th century, Myoga stalks were apparently woven into sandals for horses called umagutsu, which helped traction in wet conditions and also disguised the sound of horses’ hooves. To discourage people from eating the shoots and ensure a plentiful supply of the useful stems, the above story was turned around to associate Myoga with forgetfulness, and claim eating it made you stupid.

Myoga buds are one of the 10 most common family crests in Japan. During the Sengoku period, many samurai chose Myoga as their symbol on the battlefield as the name is a homophone for ‘luck’.

Koten engei (literally ‘classical horticulture’) is the Japanese tradition of (somewhat obsessively) growing and displaying select groups of Japanese native plants with a focus on natural variations and mutations. Plant societies hold shows and the plants are displayed in special hand-made pots, which themselves are often very beautiful. The emphasis is almost always on foliage, with flowers a bonus rather than the main attraction. The societies classify and rank varieties in a document called a meikan, published once a year and based on the ranking system for sumo wrestlers.

Variegated plants are highly valued in Japanese horticulture, and koten engei plants are no exception, with the various patterns of variegation classified and named. Often, the more highly variegated (and therefore weaker and more difficult to grow) plants are the most prized. Unusual leaf shapes and dwarf forms are also valued. In some plants, such as Neofinetia orchids, shapes of leaf joints and the colours of root tips are assessed and ranked.

The popularity of various koten engei plants waxes and wanes in a cyclical fashion over the years, with particular plants creating mini-booms rather like the Dutch tulip mania of the seventeenth century. There are around 30 koten engei shokobutsu – plants of the koten engei tradition- mostly native to Japan with a few introduced long ago from China and Korea. These include Rohdea japonica (Omoto, the Japanese Sacred Lily), Ardisia japonica, Nandina, Asarums (Wild Gingers), Neofinetia falcata orchids (now Vanda falcata), dwarf Rhapis excelsa (Lady Palms), Chrysanthemums, and Morning Glories (Ipomoea nil) amongst others.

Most bamboos are suitable for growing in containers, and in a small garden it may be the best way to include these lovely plants.

The first thing is to choose your bamboo. All Fargesia species do well in containers. Many Phyllostachys species are also happy in containers, and as they are running bamboos, it is a good way to grow them without having to worry about them spreading. These two genera make up the majority of widely available bamboo species, so there’s plenty of choice. Less commonly encountered, Chusquea species hate being grown in pots and very invasive species of Sasa and Chimonobambusa will also not do well.

The next thing is to choose your container. It’s important to choose one which either has straight sides or slopes outwards, so that the bamboo can be removed for repotting when necessary. Containers which belly outwards or narrow towards the top are not suitable. People often buy tall and narrow pots for bamboo, but actually the best shape is shorter and wide. Bamboos are comparatively shallow rooted, and a wider base both gives them room to grow and helps with stability in windy conditions.

You can either pot a bamboo up every couple of years into progressively larger containers or pop it straight into the largest one. Bamboos are not generally bothered about being over potted. Once it has filled the pot, it should be taken out every two or three years, the rootball sawn in half, and each half repotted. It’s best not to cut it into more than two pieces. Bamboos aren’t keen on being divided and if you try to make too many you risk losing them.

The logical choice of growing medium would be half multipurpose compost and half John Innes no 3. I have only used peatfree compost for many years and my bamboos are perfectly happy in it, even in the old New Horizon which wasn’t a patch on the Sylvagrow I use now.

As far as feeding and watering go, remember bamboos are woody grasses, so essentially you have a 7ft lawn in a pot. A high nitrogen feed is ideal, but not too late in the year when it encourages vulnerable soft growth. Always keep the bamboo’s shed leaves in the top of the pot. As they break down they return essential nutrients, including the silica that makes bamboos flexible, to the plant.

Watering is really important. Bamboos in the ground are pretty drought resistant when established, but a bamboo in a pot will go brown and crispy like your lawn if it dries out, and it may well die. If you do have one that dries out (and it’s happened to me more than once) plunge it in a big bucket of water as soon as you notice. Lift it out when thoroughly soaked, and keep it well watered. If you’re lucky it will sprout new leaves, though it will take a while. It’s almost impossible to overwater a bamboo, so you won’t ever go wrong by being generous with water. I stand most of my potted bamboos in shallow trays of water all summer.