Yet as I travel through Mississippi and other Southern states, it is definitely clear that much of Zone 7 and 8 can grow gingers with the best of those gardeners in Zone 9. I once thought that if I couldn't grow torch ginger then there was no ginger worth growing. Obviously, I was young and wrong because there are lots of other gingers we can grow that are just as pretty. For the past several years, I have visited the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and have come back impressed with scarlet gingers known as Hedychium coccineum. Lest someone think these growers have cornered the secret, I also found the same plants in Yazoo City.
Gingers love dappled shade but also work quite well in full sun with plenty of water.
The blooms don't last very long but produce for a long time. Another ginger I always wanted to grow but couldn't get to bloom is the Alpinia purpurata, or red flame ginger. But we have one just as pretty called the Crepe ginger, Costus speciosus. The crepe ginger produces white flowers in a 4-inch bracted red cone. After the flowers have dropped, the red bract cone remains pretty for a long period of time, similar to the way the yellow shrimp plant performs.