Hedychiums are the gingers that gardeners further south can actually grow — and grow well. Known as butterfly gingers or garland gingers, this genus is one of the most cold tolerant in the entire ginger family, with many varieties handling frosts and cool winters that would finish off their tropical relatives without hesitation. For subtropical and temperate gardeners who love the lush, architectural look of gingers but assumed they were out of reach, hedychiums are the answer.

They are also, almost without exception, beautifully scented. The flowers — held in upright spikes above tall, leafy canes — range from pure white through cream, yellow, orange, salmon and red depending on the variety, and many carry a sweet, pervasive fragrance that fills the garden on warm evenings and drifts through open windows in a way that stops you mid-thought. It is one of the more underrated pleasures of a summer garden.

As garden plants they are generous and unfussy — building steadily into substantial clumps that fill space with lush, tropical-looking foliage and then reward the wait with those extraordinary scented flower spikes. They work beautifully as large-scale fillers, background plants, screening along fences, or massed in a shaded bed where little else performs with such ease and elegance.

We grow a mixed range at El Arish, from the classic white and yellow butterfly gingers beloved by generations of Australian gardeners to rarer species and forms that bring something less familiar to the collection. All are chosen for their performance, their fragrance and their genuine value as garden plants.