Variegated Gingers after the Freeze

Variegated gingers are a popular plant in our Houston tropical landscapes. Now, they all look like this right now, but don’t worry. They should come back from all the way at the ground level. What you need to do is cut them back to the ground. There’s not going to be anything left, but just some stalks. It may take a little bit for them to start coming back. Since they are tropical, the heat really stimulates their growth, so they won’t kick it in gear probably until late March or even April. But I have pretty good confidence that they’ll make it back. Put a little bit of mild organic fertilizer on them just to ease them back into spring mode. Don’t over-water because they don’t have a lot of foliage, so they’re not going to be using a lot of water. If you over-water them, that’ll make them rot and make the problems worse.