Thai Ginger (White Galangal)

Galangal is a type of ginger commonly used in Asian cuisine, such as Tom Yum and Thai Tom Kha. The plant grows from rhizomes in clumps of tall, cane-like stems with long, lance-shaped leaves, giving it a lush, tropical look in the garden or a large pot. The rhizome is the "galangal" used in cooking, with a zesty, citrus-flavoured taste and a peppery edge. This is the classic White Galangal, identified by its green stems (as opposed to the reddish-stemmed red cultivar), and it's the variety most commonly used as the everyday culinary spice in Thai cooking. In the warmer months it can produce small greenish-white flowers with red markings.

This plant is used as you would regular ginger, by digging up the roots.

Care: Plant in well-drained, fertile soil, in full sun or part shade, and give it some shelter from strong wind, which can tatter the leaves. Keep the soil evenly moist through spring, summer and autumn, easing off watering over winter. Galangal is frost tender, and the white cultivar is a touch less cold-hardy than the red, so in cooler parts of the country it's best grown in a large pot that can be moved somewhere warm and sheltered over the colder months, or mulched well and given a sunny, sheltered spot if it's in the ground. The foliage will die back with cold weather, but the rhizome will resprout from the base again the following spring.

When harvesting, wait until the plant is well established before digging up rhizomes, ideally once the foliage has died back over winter, and leave some rhizome in place so it resprouts for next year's harvest.

Our current stock are large healthy plants, around 90cm to a metre high including the pot, with a good sized rhizome.. Upon planting, the plant will spread, so it is best in a large container or garden bed where it can be controlled easily.