A
full
sun

C
part
shade

D
full
shade

¤
tactile

ä
edible


AGM

Hedychium coccineum AGM

Hedychium coccineum is widely distributed from Nepal and northeastern India eastwards to Yunnan province in China and south to Bangladesh, Myanmar and northern Vietnam & Thailand.  It is frequently cultivated as an ornamental and its range may have been extended by human activity.  Unlike some Hedychium in India H. coccineum is not much used other than as an ornamental but some tribal peoples believe that a flower worn behind the ear is a powerful repellent against evil spirits and disease.  

Hedychium coccineum has distinctly glaucous foliage and flowers at up to 2 m tall.  The main colour range is from yellow-orange to deep red but pink forms also occur.  Four to six flowers are produced from each bract giving each inflorescence an extended flowering period.  As well as differences in flower colour there seem to be differences in plant behaviour with some forms going dormant in winter even in the absence of frost while similarly treated others are evergreen.

In 1993 H. coccineum was awarded an AGM (RHS Award of Garden Merit) and given the hardiness rating H1 min. 2ºC.  This award to the species indicates that the RHS suggest that the plant always requires the protection of a glasshouse and a minimum winter temperature of 2ºC.  Hedychium coccineum is rather hardier than this in our experience and may be worth trying in some sheltered gardens.  However, to get H. coccineum to flower reliably it should be grown under protection.  The exception to this note of caution is, of course,  'Tara', which is completely hardy and has an AGM in its own right ... but then of course 'Tara' may not be H. coccineum; see below. 

Despite the award of an AGM to H. coccineum there is no AGM-form as such.  This is very unsatisfactory since, as can be seen below, H. coccineum is an extremely variable species and some forms are, frankly, more interesting than attractive.

The nomenclature of H. coccineum in the literature is confused; some of the variants in leaf shape and flower colour have been treated as botanical varieties or even elevated to species in their own right.  We now lump them all together here making no attempt to distinguish botanical varieties.

The forms of Hedychium coccineum we have available are:

BSWJ 5238 (Doi Chiang Dao)
EN 527 (narrow leaf)
Form 1 (scarlet deciduous)
Form 2 (Red rachis)
Form 3 (H. aurantiacum)
Form 4 (dark red 1)
Form 5 (dark red 2)
Form 6 (Savill Garden)
Form 8 ("Thai Orange")
Form 9 ("Bangladesh Orange")
'Orange Brush'
Pink-flowered
'Tara' AGM

Growing conditions  A C

Price - £9.50 for a plant in a 3 or 5 litre pot.

Click on the images for more information

Routinely propagated and usually available.
EN527              Form 1          Form 4                  Pink-flowered       'Tara' AGM
                        

Not routinely propagated but can be propagated to order.
BSWJ5238           Form 2               Form 3                  Form 5              Form 6          Form 8                 Form 9
                             

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