A blanket of green for your shade garden

By Aaron Horrell

Wild ginger is native to the eastern half of the United States. It spreads slowly from the roots outwardly about eight inches each year.

The tightly clustered, uniform green leaves can make a very nice ground cover in a "shade garden." Wild ginger requires very little to no care once established. It grows wild in the deciduous woods and transplants well. If you know someone who owns a forest, you might ask permission to look for wild ginger there.

The flowers look somewhat like a fairy's bucket made of leather with three reddish colored open flaps. The flowers lay on the ground out of sight under the plant's tender leaves.

You can see the cap of a red oak acorn in my photo.