Q: I have a piece of ginger root that's starting to grow a sprout. Can I plant it and how do I do it and when?
Larry Fedyk
A: Yes, you can plant it immediately. But because culinary ginger is not hardy, it must be kept inside away from freezing temperatures.
Plant it in a pot of rich soil and water it often. Ginger can become a large plant and the bigger its pot of soil is, the more opportunity it will have to expand. In turn, this will lead to a bigger harvest.
It's possible to grow ginger on a windowsill providing it gets bright indirect light. It doesn't do well in long exposure to blazing sunlight.
It will take at least four or five months before the plant is strong enough for you to try cutting a root for harvest (you could leave some of the other roots for later harvests). If it does well, ginger can grow to about 60 centimetres.
Q: I recently planted azaleas, boxwood, a rhodo, Japanese skimmias and a Japanese maple tree and decided to mulch with pine needles. Is this a good idea? I thought it might also be a good idea to replace the needles every year. I did read about adding lime, but don't want to do this for fear of damaging the plants.
Zoe Wilson
A: It's a very good idea to mulch with pine needles. They are somewhat acidic, but you've chosen acidloving and acid-tolerant shrubs and trees that won't have any problem with the degree of acidity in pine needles.
If you decide to leave the pine needles in place for several years the needles will tend to mat together and form a close surface. This won't happen if you replace them each year.
Replacing them will also avoid the situation where the roots of your shrubs and tree move up into the mulch. This isn't a huge problem aside from making it somewhat harder to open up planting holes if you decide to add more species.
You're right that adding lime isn't a good idea. Lime can damage some acid-loving plants. Rhododendron leaves are especially quick to turn yellow if lime is present.
Q: I got a pink orchid for my birthday in July. It has stopped blooming and the stem and one leaf died. The other two leaves are very healthy. Will my orchid grow a new stem and re-flower?
Darcey McCarthy A: Yes, Darcey, if you mist your orchid every day and give it a humid atmosphere it should flower again.
Most orchids sold here come from misty tropical forests. In its natural habitat, your orchid would flower in about a year. But most of the orchids sold here are raised in heated, lighted greenhouses and conditions are adjusted to make them bloom at times that aren't natural to them.
Now it has to re-adjust to natural light. It may rest for more than a year before flowering again. Or it may surprise you by flowering earlier.
If your home is very dry, consider standing the orchid pot on gravel in a container with a shallow layer of water. Evaporation of the water will make the air around your orchid more humid.
Q: Are hollyhocks biennial plants? I planted one in early summer. The plant grew tall with lots of big leaves but no flowers. Does my soil contain too much nitrogen?
Heidi Hilmar A: Hollyhocks are one of those confusing perennials that may flower the first year if seed is sown early. But usually they make vegetative growth the first year and flower in their second year.
Your plant is behaving according to the nature of hollyhocks. Too much nitrogen is unlikely to be a factor. I'm sure you'll get flowers next year.
Older varieties of hollyhocks can get bad rust problems on their leaves. Planting them in a warm, sunny spot can reduce this, but there is also a variety called Antwerp that is said to be rust-resistant.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to amarrison@ shaw.ca.
