Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Other Names:  Elegant Peacock Ginger, Kaempferia pulchra

Description:

A shade loving ginger with large, rounded leaves that have three rows of silver spots arranged across them; pattern of spots can be highly variable; winter dormant, foliage and purple flowers appear in spring to fall; a great groundcover for shady areas

Ornamental Features

Silver Spot Plant features dainty purple star-shaped flowers with white eyes along the stems from mid spring to mid fall. Its attractive large textured round leaves remain forest green in colour with distinctive silver spots and tinges of coppery-bronze throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Silver Spot Plant is a dense herbaceous annual with a ground-hugging habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Silver Spot Plant is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Silver Spot Plant will grow to be only 6 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 3 feet. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 24 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. Although it's not a true annual, this plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant does best in partial shade to shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. This plant should not require much in the way of fertilizing once established, although it may appreciate a shot of general-purpose fertilizer from time to time early in the growing season. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is not originally from North America. It can be propagated by division.

Silver Spot Plant is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.