Cardamom. Eletteria cardamomum. Anyone can grow it and it has the most sweet-smelling foliage that God has yet created. It grows from rhizomes but spreads out in the garden in slow motion, and is entirely manageable, in the manner of other rhizomatous plants such as lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus) and the common flag iris (Iris germanica). In its tropical habitat, it grows to a height of ten feet while in Los Angeles and the dry southwest, where it must be sun protected, it is content to be a ground cover that grows no taller than a foot or two. I must also note that Cardamom does not flower in Los Angeles because night temperatures are too cold. The big difference, in fact, between subtropical and tropical climates is night temperature. In the tropics, warm nights are typical and it is the lack of fluctuation between day and night temperature that allows tropical plants to flower.
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