Shampoo Ginger: The Homeschool Science Lesson That Became a Garden Favorite

Written by Erin Bakker

A couple of years ago, all three of my kids were homeschooling, and somehow a science lesson ended with me ordering three hunks of shampoo ginger root from a grower on Etsy.

This is very on-brand for how homeschool worked at our house. We learned about something interesting. I immediately decided we needed to grow it.

Shampoo ginger was especially fascinating because the plant produces these funny cone-shaped blooms that eventually fill with a clear, fragrant liquid. You can gently squeeze the cone over a bowl or jar and collect the liquid, which has traditionally been used as a natural shampoo and body wash. And, possibly the coolest part, if you do not squeeze the cone too aggressively, it can refill and give you more another day.

Obviously, we needed this plant. So I ordered three little rhizomes. I planted them.

And apparently they were very happy here.

Three Little Roots Later...

Fast-forward about three years and I now have tons of shampoo ginger.

Tons.

It spreads underground through rhizomes, which explains how my original three little pieces turned themselves into an entire situation. That also makes shampoo ginger a great pass-along plant because you can dig up sections, divide the rhizomes and share them.

Which I do.

I have given pieces away as gifts and passed them along to neighbors, which might actually be one of my favorite things about growing it.

There is something very Nana-ish to me about a plant that gets divided and passed around.

Eventually everybody has a little piece of the original plant growing somewhere in their yard.

And Then the Weird Little Cones Show Up

Most of the year, shampoo ginger is just a really pretty tropical-looking plant.

Then the cones come up.

They start green, with small flowers emerging from between the bracts, and eventually turn this gorgeous red. In Florida, they typically show off in late summer and fall.

That is when the fun starts.

You squeeze the ripe cone gently over a little container and this slippery, fragrant liquid comes out.

Nature made shampoo. That is just weird enough for me to love it.

It Has Also Been Ridiculously Easy to Grow

I have had great luck using shampoo ginger almost like a tropical filler plant.

Mine works really well along a fence line or against the house where I want something lush and substantial.

University of Florida gardening guidance recommends partial sun to partial shade and moist, fertile soil. The plant can grow into a pretty serious clump, reaching roughly five to seven feet tall depending on conditions, and it generally dies back during colder weather before returning.

And I think that last part is worth knowing.

There is a portion of the year when you might look at it and wonder where your entire tropical garden went.

It comes back.

Now I Want More Ginger

This is what always happens to me.

I successfully grow one interesting plant and instead of thinking, Great, I have that plant now, I immediately want to know what else exists.

And ornamental gingers are a rabbit hole.

There are butterfly gingers with fragrant flowers, low-growing peacock gingers with interesting foliage, hidden gingers, tulip gingers, shell gingers and all sorts of others that grow well in Florida landscapes.

There is even a variegated form of shampoo ginger called ‘Darceyi’ with green-and-white foliage, which I clearly did not need to know existed because now I want one.

So I suspect my original homeschool science lesson is not over.

It has just become a collection.

Which, if you know me, is usually how these things go.

Three little roots become a garden bed.

The garden bed becomes plants shared with neighbors.

And now I am searching for weird ginger varieties.

Seems educational enough to me.