Ginger Lilies Arrived

It isn’t often that I get customer service that totally blows me away but Almost Eden . . I don’t even know what to say about them. I can’t think of anything they could have done better. They shipped right on time. The packaging was amazing, and the plants look like they were thriving in the garden this morning!

Those who have read my blog for years know that I have searched for ginger lilies for years and years. Mom (in Louisiana) had given me some and I kept them in pots in Kentucky, and they actually bloomed, but I don’t know if they froze or I left them when we moved but I no longer have them. For some crazy reason, Mom pulled all hers out, though she tells me two have sprouted up and she’s keeping them alive for me.

A couple of years ago, I had ordered ginger lilies and planted them in pots. They’ve never done anything. The ones in Kentucky always bloomed in pots. Maybe it’s our horrible summers . . I don’t know. But it seems I really need ginger lilies in my life so a couple of weeks ago I went on a search for them and found Almost Eden, which happens to be in Louisiana and happens to be in a little town I pass through when heading to my uncle’s lake house or to Lake Charles.

They were meticulously packaged. I honestly think they could have thrown in a dozen eggs in that box and not a single one of them would have been broken.

I ordered a few ginger lilies, thinking I was getting individual rhizomes, which is what I’ve always received when I’ve ordered from other plants. The plants arrived today and NO! Not individual dried up, half dead rhizomes but healthy, thriving plants that, if I had taken the time to do it, I could have divided and ended up with about 4 times as many plants as I ordered.

The instructions said to keep them aside for a couple of days, water them often and then plant them but there was a chance of rain today so I went ahead and planted them. Who knows when it will rain again . . at our house, we haven’t had rain since the end of May. Now that my plants are in the ground, it isn’t looking like it’s going to rain after all but . . not to worry . . there’s a slim chance of rain again on November 14.  🙁

I planted them in the bed Vince had already made for my irises and mums. The old ginger lilies, in pots that never did anything . . I’m going to plant them in the ground and see if they do any better. I planted one but the ground is so hard. We’ll have to soak it so Vince can dig deeper holes for the ones that have been in pots. I couldn’t start to make a dent in the ground . . just down to the depth where Vince had already tilled up.

Thee old ones look sad but I’m going to give them a chance. I don’t think I got this one planted deep enough but I’m going to leave it there for now and hope Vince can dig some deeper holes for me this weekend.

The white butterfly ginger lilies is the main one I’ve been trying to find. The man at Almost Eden suggested I try the peach ones, so I ordered those too.

The ones I hard ordered before were this white one, which is supposed to be fragrant and looks quite a bit like what I had been looking for but not exactly, and this peachy orange one. I hope I can get them to come back, thrive and bloom.

Almost Eden has lots of interesting plants, so if you are ever looking for something you may not be able to find other places, check them out. I highly recommend them.