Blue-Flowering Ginger. This tropical-looking perennial is not a ginger at all but has some of the most brilliant blue flowers in the plant kingdom. Here in zone 8, it dies to the ground in the winter and then in mid-spring it begins to emerge with large silver and burgundy striped leaves which closely resemble those of a gargantuan Wandering Jew plant. It can easily get to 3-4' high with an equal spread. Even though it is listed as zone 10 hardiness on some sites, we have had temperatures as low as 3°F here and it has come back every year. It might be advisable to mulch the ground with some leaves or pine straw. It grows best for us in part shade with uniform moisture. Flowers usually don't form until late September in to October and last many weeks until freezing temperatures cut them to the ground. They slowly clump outward, but the stems are quite easily rooted in just a glass of water.
Zones 7b-11
