At least at for a couple years the plant Logee's was selling as cardamom was the shy to flowering Alpinia spp. Tim was describing earlier in this thread. It is a great foliage plant and the smell is nice but to get flowers it needs a warm frost free situation whether latitude or greenhouse. It has creamy white flowers veined with yellow and red in the throat that are fairly similar to shell ginger Alpinia zerumbet. I have never seen true Elettaria cardamomum in person, but it was my understanding that it only thrived in tropical montane habitat similar to coffee. where the temperature didn't get below freezing but day time high temperatures were not high either. I was also told by a friend who has seen the plant in commercial cultivation, that true cardamom did not have aromatic foliage unlike the plants commonly identified as cardamom in the plant trade. Alani Davis Tallahassee, Florida On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Leo A. Martin <leo@possi.org> wrote: > Years ago Logees Greenhouses in Connecticut sold what they called > Elettaria cardamomum, > but they don't list it on their Web site now. I have been growing it for > nearly 30 years > and giving pieces to other plant friends. > > It is nearly indestructible in a container, but I have never exposed it to > frost. It > flowered once in my mother's garden in southern California, where she > grows it in a > raised bed. Her plant gets well over a meter tall. I don't have a photo of > the flowers > and didn't see them. > > The leaves are quite papery and are borne in two ranks, which is expected > of true > cardamom. The entire plant is strongly aromatic, with the expected scent. > > Leo Martin > Phoenix Arizona USA > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >