Victoria Clare wrote:

And can you actually grow cardamoms from, well, cardamoms from a spice pot,
or do you need special seed as per the catalogue? I am a big cardamom fan,
so if the leaves smell like the seeds, I shall soon be acquiring a new
house plant one way or the other. . .

Victoria

--
Victoria Clare
gardening high up in South East Cornwall
http://www.clareassoc.co.uk/
--

I've no experience of trying to grow cardamom but I think that most of the
culinary stock would be rather too old to do well. Re growing it as a
houseplant, its quite a big plant, related to ginger. I've seen it growing
in plantations in South India. They grow it under the rainforest canopy as
it's an understorey plant. From the outside (ie looking up at the hills) it
looked like masses of undisturbed rainforest but when we got there it was
almost all cardamom plantation. A fascinating place, with estate buildings
perched on steep escarpments c. 3 hours walk from the plains....every brick
having had to be carried up by head. But the plant itself is not especially
beautiful and I don't think any other part of the plant carries the aroma.
Anita