PlantFiles: Peacock Ginger, Peacock Plant, Resurrection Lily
Kaempferia pulchra

This plant was given to me as a tuber root three years ago. I cannot keep up with it. It is my favorite plant of all. I have had them go dormant for the whole winter, and only having shaken it out of the pot and replanted did it start to thrive once again. They are beautiful in a hanging basket, but within two months they need to be separated. I have about 30 in small to medium pots right now and two very large hanging baskets. They are a delight to see flower each morning.

I only recently (late May) purchased this plant from a local nursery. I was going to keep it indoors this winter and set it out in the spring, but it has grown so actively I may need to set it out this fall. I find the zone and temperature info encouraging.

I have three different types of these little gingers growing under the shade of an old oak tree in Northcentral Florida, zone 8b. I bought all three of my plants at different local nurseries, and all were just labeled "Peacock Gingers." All are about the same size, and two have light lavender flowers, and the third has white flowers. Each kind has a distinctly different leaf pattern, and they all kept their leaf patterns throughout the Summer and Fall seasons.

I've planted them with evergreen Encore azaleas "Autumn Monarch" and am gradually transplanting native ferns, as I find them on my property, into the beds with the little Peacock Gingers for texture contrast. I wish I knew the exact cultivar names of my three plants, but they grow so abundantly here that I have bought a full pot of these little plants for a dollar, so no one at the local plant nurseries seems to bother to keep up with their exact botanical and cultivar names.

I found this to be a wonderful, seasonal groundcover for a deep shade garden. I have it growing under water and red oaks where, from about May to December it provides lush fill over the mulch. Seems to work well interplanted with Eomecon chionantha (snow poppy). One is dormant when the other peaks.

Hardiness Range: 8B - 9A Height: 6" to 12" Prefers full shade to partial shade and moist soil. This plant produces long, narrow, solid green, strap leaves w/purple iridescent flowers in spring and sometimes in summer.