Spiral Ginger

The Spiral Ginger is of no-relation whatsoever to the ginger that we use for our culinary dishes. The plant is also commonly known as Red Button Ginger, Panamian Candle Ginger, Dwarf French Kiss or by any other names. Botanically, the plant is call Costus Woodsonii from the Costaceae family, sister family of the true gingers, the Zingiberaceae. Presently, there are over 90 or so species of the Costus.

I bought my one and only Spiral Ginger plant for a mere $2, then planted in a black poly bag. It have since matured and a proud distributor or another word, a mother to many plantlets that I propagated and given to friends.



The Spiral Ginger is an all year blooming plant. Native to Central America, it is an attractive small plant that can reach to the height of approximately 3ft tall (approx 1 metre). The brightly red heads that looks like cones do create a very nice contrast to the green shiny foliage on spiral stems (I guess that's where the word spiral is derived from). Flowers will emerge from between the bracts of the cone from colours of yellow to orange.


As for the green shiny leaves, they are so how pre-arranged in a spiral or alternately along the stems. In many species, even the stems is spiralled.


Propagation is by stem cuttings or plantlets that appeared from the matured dried-up flower cones onto well-drained medium. The plant is a fast grower and loves rich moist medium but not wet. To produce thick healthy plant stems,it's best to fertlise the medium once every 2 or 3 weeks. The Spiral Ginger plant prefers shade with indirect sunlight and grows well in containers.


** Ramadhan Kareem to all my Muslim guest. May this holy month of Ramadhan bring you much faith, self fulfillment with joy, happiness and solace. Ameen.