Sometimes, you just get lucky: Shoo-fly plant turns out to be a winner

In the Garden

Sometimes you just luck out and stumble onto a plant that turns out to be a winner. That’s what happened when I purchased a seedling shoo-fly plant (Nicandra physalodes) at a rare-plant nursery a few years ago.

An annual hailing from Peru, these members of the tomato family are thought to have poisonous fruit. That might be true, but they obviously don’t harm birds. The seed is often included in commercial bird-feed mixtures, and seedlings often pop up under birdfeeders.

Interestingly, of the shoo-fly seedlings that appear under feeders, almost all have green foliage. The leaves on the one I bought are beautifully variegated in yellow, white and green.

Evidently, there are selected varieties with better leaf color than others. The pale, blue flowers on shoo-fly are short-lived, but they reappear on a daily basis. As attractive as the flowers are, what I find more interesting are the highly ornamental, Chinese lantern-like fruit capsules that form after the flowers fade. They remain all season, and dry to make beautiful winter decorations.

The plant dies at the end of the season, but every spring a few seedlings come back true from seed, including the variegated leaves.

The nursery where I found my shoo-fly is no longer there, but the seeds are available online. Unfortunately it’s difficult to find seeds that will produce shoo-fly with the colorful variegated leaves.

Of course if you happen to know someone who already has those seeds, you might be able to talk him into trading some for a stalk of top-quality Brussels sprouts.

It’s time to harvest the potatoes on your ‘Ketchup ’n’ Fries plant

This summer, lots of us rushed out to buy and grow the new ‘Ketchup ’n’ Fries’, a tomato grafted on a potato root stock. It came with few instructions, so it’s not surprising there’s a fair amount of confusion regarding when and how to harvest the potatoes at the end of the season.

The time to harvest is a short while after the vines on top begin to die back, putting an end to the production of those incredibly delicious little tomatoes. As soon as that happens, cut the tomato stem down to about 4 inches above the soil level. Then wait a week before harvesting, to allow the potatoes to ripen underground.

If you grew your ‘Ketchup ’n’ Fries’ in a pot, consider moving it into an unheated garage until you’re ready to harvest. Potatoes can tolerate only light frost and are especially vulnerable to a hard freeze, especially if they’re growing in a container.

Once you’ve allowed the potatoes time to ripen, it’s time to harvest. If you planted your ‘Ketchup ’n’ Fries’ in a pot, gently dump them out on a tarp, or if you planted in the ground, dig the potatoes, being careful not to bruise them. Eat any you bruise or damage right away, as they won’t store well.

Don’t allow harvested potatoes to sit in sunlight for longer than necessary. Sunlight will turn them green, and eating green potatoes could give you a stomach ache.

If you harvest enough potatoes to make it worth storing some for later use, cure them by putting them on a screen in a cool, unheated garage in a dark location for about two weeks. That will harden the skins and the cured potatoes should keep for six to eight months stored at 40 degrees. If you don’t cure them, eat them soon. I’m sure they’ll be delicious, especially if you follow Julia Child’s advice: “More butter!”