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Hedychium densiflorum 'Sorung'
Accepted name Hedychium densiflorum 'Sorung'
Synonyms Distribution Description References Comments Hedychium densiflorum is a very variable species in nature and the best garden forms such as 'Assam Orange' and 'Stephen' have been found growing in the wild. In his fascinating chapter on Hedychium in Gardening on the Edge Edward Needham introduces us to another superb wild-collected form of the species that he names 'Sorung'. Mr Needham found this plant, a single plant in a group of the more usual type, at the edge of the village of Sorung on the eastern side of the Saalpa Pass between the Dudh Kosi and Arun valleys in Nepal.
'Sorung' has flowers only a little smaller than 'Stephen' but of a most attractive and unusual pinkish orange colour. An unusual feature of 'Sorung' flowers is that they are rather variable with the deeply cleft labellum variably split and sometimes with a third central lobe (see images of the flowers below). Although collected many miles apart, 'Sorung' is similar to a plant collected by Tony Schilling near Kathmandu, A. D. Schilling 582, even sharing the characteristic of the variably split labellum. 'Sorung' and Sch. 582 are compared here.
Together with 'Stephen' and A. D. Schilling 582, 'Sorung' seems to form a distinct group of large-flowered Hedychium densiflorum which are compared here.
'Sorung' grows outdoors in Cornwall and Somerset and would no doubt succeed in sheltered town gardens but it has not been widely grown and should initially be treated as relatively tender. 'Sorung' should be grown initially in the cold greenhouse or conservatory, in a large container or in a border, but once it has grown sufficiently for a piece of rhizome to be removed it may be tried outside.
