The wonderful flowering gingers provide a great form and foliage contrast to a shady border. A more open position can be suitable, where soils retain moisture during their growing season (May-Oct) or in the more westerly parts of the UK. If grown in a woodland or light shade, they will provide flower colour and drama, in autumn, unlike anything else. Flowers can be large and spidery-looking, often scented, emerging from cone-like bracts. Fruits can also be colourful, extending their season. Foliage is upright, strap-like. A great addition to the garden, with H. densiflorum being a good introduction, as its more tolerant of cold and drier conditions.
Although gingers are generally thought of as being day-scented and bird-pollinated or night-scented and moth-pollinated, it seems that in Britain, far away from their natural homes (south-east Asia) and pollinators, they can be visited by both bees and butterflies.