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Chinese Lantern plant or weed?

Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
in Plants
During lockdown last year someone gave me a load of stems of Chinese Lantern plants and warned me they would grow prolifically. I now have a huge crop of something but I am not sure it is Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi). Does anyone recognise this?

I'm not even sure the two plants in the two photos are the same but I have a lot of both next to one another!


My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


Posts

  • pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
    It is Physalis, yes.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    The first pic certainly looks like chinese lanterns. I'm not convinced about the second, but maybe it's just the angle.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
    @JennyJ You have a point. I haven’t noticed the second photo. I does look like something else.
  • IlikeplantsIlikeplants Posts: 894
    I had some old seeds so sowed them on. They look like tiny versions of your first pic. I heard they could be invasive so going to try them in pots and far away under hedge?
  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    I am growing these for my niece who decorates cakes.  Mine look like the first picture but not the second.  Yours look healthy.  Very hot here, so they are feeling it!!
    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    Thank you for all the replies! Maybe I didn't want Chinese Lanterns after all as they do look very weedlike at this stage! 

    I've also worked out that the second photo is rudebekia and not Chinese Lanterns. The two are adjacent and both look quite weed like right now.
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


  • Bill_and_BenBill_and_Ben Posts: 161
    JennyJ said:
    The first pic certainly looks like chinese lanterns. I'm not convinced about the second, but maybe it's just the angle.

    pitter-patter said:
    @JennyJ You have a point. I haven’t noticed the second photo. I does look like something else.
    Realised the second is rudbeckia!
    My location: Histon, near Cambridge, UK


  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Yes. It's either or both.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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