My turmeric is flowering

[hoodat]

I've had this clump of turmeric for about 5 years but this is the first time I've seen what the flower looks like. The white ppetals at the top are actually bracts (modified leaves). The flowers are the small yellow ones on the stem below the bracts. Alas, turmeric has been in cultivation so long it has lost the ability to make seeds. It has to be reproduced from a bit of the rhizome.

This is the clump itself. It just keeps spreading out and getting bigger.

 

[thistlebloom]

Turmeric is great stuff, no wonder you're in such great health Hoody! How often can you harvest from the rhizome?
I notice you have a nice big clump.

 

[desertlady]

almost looks like easter lilies!

 

[hoodat]

Turmeric is great stuff, no wonder you're in such great health Hoody! How often can you harvest from the rhizome?
I notice you have a nice big clump.

I can get a rhizome almost whenever I need one. I just dig down at the edge of the clump and get what I need. A little turmeric goes a long way so I don't need much at a time and it just keeps coming back. It seems to feel right at home here in San Diego. If it goes dormant this Fall (sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't) I'll thin it out and either dry or pickle the excess.

 

[hoodat]

almost looks like easter lilies!

I don't know how long the flowers last. They were already three weeks old when the pic was taken. The stems just keep getting longer. They wouls no doubt be great in a flower arrangement.

 

[so lucky]

Do they have a smell?

 

[Teka]

Where did you get your first rhizome? I'd love to try growing it in a pot here. (I grow ginger in a pot, bringing it in in winter. It goes dormant in dead-winter but I can still harvest fresh ginger whenever I need it. And yes, it flowered once.)

 

[hoodat]

Where did you get your first rhizome? I'd love to try growing it in a pot here. (I grow ginger in a pot, bringing it in in winter. It goes dormant in dead-winter but I can still harvest fresh ginger whenever I need it. And yes, it flowered once.)

I got my rhizome at an Asian food market. If you find one with a lot of Indian or Pakistani customers they are almost sure to carry it. It takes patience to get it going. A dormant root can take as long as 2 months to break out. After that though it grows like crazy. It isn't hard to grow indoors if you have a sunny room.

 

[catjac1975]

So beautiful. Nothing like a flower that rewards you for all your patience.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Oh my gosh, that is spectacular! What a cool plant, i had no idea what it looked like.