EVERYTHING WILL COME UP GINGER COME SPRING

Dead Ginger

There's nothing as forlorn-looking as dead ginger trees — straggly brown stalks that died during the last Louisiana freeze a few weeks ago. This plant usually grows well in our side and backyards and along our overgrown coulee. During warm seasons, the ginger trees give lush beauty to south Louisiana landscapes, but they die ugly deaths from bad chills.

One of our prolific ginger trees grows a few feet away from the "eternal camellia" Godfather Markham planted and is tall enough to view from my perch on the glass porch. When they don't have to endure harsh winters, ginger trees bear lovely purple blooms, and I've extolled their beauty in several previous blogs. However, today I couldn't resist writing a public lament for "Ginger's" death by ice and give it a proper funeral eulogy.

Ginger trees, originally grown in Southeast Asia, emit a spicy herbal scent that lingers even beyond death. I could walk by the ugly stalks right now and revel in their fragrance. Ginger is often used in aromatherapy and medicinally to treat migraines, nausea, arthritis, digestive upsets, and a plethora of other ills. I'm someone who suffers from chronic digestive upsets, so a box of ginger tea is always on the shelf in our kitchen cabinet. In addition to digestive disorders, ginger lowers blood sugar and helps prevent common colds. I'm always asking our resident botanist, Dr. Vickie Sullivan, about plants' usefulness, and she affirms all the treatments I mentioned.

We named the apartment attached to our carport "The Ginger House," despite several Louisiana winters that kill off these plants. However, our ginger trees resurrect between seasons. The rhizome stays alive, Dr. Sullivan says. When spring appears, the rhizomes of ginger trees shoot up sprouts that can become 8-foot tall trees, she adds.

As we usually migrate to Tennessee in mid-March, I have faith that the ginger tree's resurrection will always take place sometime between seasons. By the time we return, this lovely Louisiana plant will be fully restored and willing to enhance my view from the wicker chair on our glass porch. Everything will come up ginger!

 
Photograph by V. Sullivan