That looks very much like our native wild ginger - Asarum caudatum. All parts have the scent of ginger but it is not the culinary variety. It is a lovely, slow-growing ground cover for shady areas in the garden. Very interesting flowers too. (Do not let it dry out or it will die like mine did.)
I understand that Ginger likes the cooler temperatures and will disappear when it gets warm. Thank you for identifying this for me. I had bought a plant at VanDusen a few ears back and it disappeared but from an entirely different part of the garden and now turns up in another part...not sure how. Thanks again. K.
I have to question the idea that Asaram caudatum could 'disappear when it gets warm'. Mine thrived for many years until drought and my inabiliby to water the garden during restrictions finally killed it. The issue wasn't the heat, it was the lack of moisture. I thought so many of my cherished plants were getting enough water only to discover the next spring that they were apparently not. :(
Were You not able to at least hand water during our water restriction times (these are coming up again soon this year)? Does /did your Ginger flower?
I do my best with hand watering but my garden is spread out over an acre. The soil is mostly shallow and sandy. It's strange too that even when you think certain plants are getting enough water through the dry months, they die over the winter. This last winter, I don't think our temps ever went below freezing. I blame climate change; many plants simply can't take the stress year after year.
My garden is at its best in Spring. I have planted mostly indigenous plants and they come back Spring after Spring. I did not plant anything that required a lot of water during the Summer months and use the hand watering during the Summer months for the trees only. Regarding the Ginger, I think way back when, I put a piece of ginger root in the ground and perhaps that is the Ginger coming u this year in the garden and not the one I bought at VanDusen Botanical Garden plant sale at all. Thank you for your kind replies. K.
We bought our place 20 years ago because of all the native plants that must have been growing here for perhaps hundreds of years. Dozens of them. Now, in areas I can't water at all, many of them are disappearing - among the bulbs, Alliums, Brodiaeas, Camassias, Erythroniums and Fritillarias are all dwindling out. It's heartbreaking.
I guess you have moved what you can to an area where you can water to save some of your treasures. Perhaps even donated some to UBC Botanical Gardens and friends...So sad.
If you are referring to the ginger root available in grocery stores, it looks nothing like the photos and would not survive winter here.
Karen, do you have any dry shady spots where evergreen ground is successful? Particularly low groundcover, native? Dense enough to discourage weeds?
One of my favourite ground covers for shade is Mitella ovalis. It is a charming, native - evergreen in a reasonable winter and very attractive in an unassuming way. Dense enough to discourage weeds? Obviously, that depends on how agressive the weeds may be but it is slow-growing so won't outrun most weeds. https://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Mitella ovalis&noTransfer=0
I do have such an area. Your plant seems to have scalloped type edges whereas the one in my garden is rather rounded. Lovely shot you sent . Hope mine flowers...
