Hamilton…the flower

Just like the Broadway play, we love the plant, Boesenbergia hamiltonii. We acquired this gem from India in 2005 before it actually existed as a species. Back in the day, taxonomists who dealt only with dead, smashed plants, had created a rather large mess assigning the name Boesenbergia longiflora to every reasonably similar-looking ginger from India to Thailand. Finally, in 2013, a group of taxonomists looked at live specimens, only to discover that there were actually five different species involved in what was known as B. longiflora. Boesenbergia hamiltonii was one of those plants that came out of the divorce, which is great, since it’s the most winter hardy member of the clan. Here is our plant in light shade at JLBG, where it flowers for months during the summer.

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