Saturday, October 24, 2009

Easter Egg Plant

I blogged about this plant in early spring. My neighbor lady, grew this plant when she was a young girl in Council Bluffs many years ago. A couple of years ago, she sought seed and started growing it again, sharing her seed with me. This is what it looks like as a young plant.




It almost has a look of a weed, the leaves are rough to the touch, and I think of a nettle plant when I see it. Because it is a novelty plant, I potted up some of these guys and gave them away.






You can see in this photo that the cute little round leaves turned into a different shape. The blooms on the plant are nice little umbrella shapes. You can see the egg shape starting to develop. This plant is a photo from a cousin of mine who lives in Osceola.






This a mature egg on the plant and if you look closely they green part on the end of the egg is very much covered with thorns. The size of the mature egg is the size of an egg.




When I first grew this plant, the eggs did not get very big and they turned multiple colors. Each egg was either red, green or yellow. When I researched the seed just recently on the net,, it said they are to only turn yellow. Then I looked up on Parks Seeds and their seed says they will have cream, yellow, green and red. I don't know if they have genetically reverted back to just yellow but I liked the multiple colored eggs better than just yellow.

Because I had shared the egg plant with my cousin in Osceola, she is going to be sending seed to Arizona to her teacher son, to Ohio and out East somewhere else.
I would like to share the seed once I know that it is dried out. If I get it to dry out well, I will be glad to ship out seed to anyone willing to trust me with their address. I will let you know when I think the seed is ready and then if you want to email me then, I will send seed. It is a fun thing to grow and people think you are crazy when the see the plant, but that is the fun of it too.
And if you don't want to mess with me, Parks Seed has them for sale.
Thanks for reading......

12 comments:

Valerie said...

I've never seen an egg plant before. It's lovely.
I'd ask for seeds but I don't think the plant would grow in my garden. Anyway, I'm past trying new things now.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! I have never seen a plant like that. We are moving this year, so no adding to the garden for now. But, I love to learn about a new plant.

Anonymous said...

Larry, when I first starting reading this post, I was going to ask you if you would be willing to sell me some seeds! I'd love some.
Do they grow outdoors as an annual, or are they a perennial? .... or an indoor plant?
I'd love to try and grow them! I like the multicolored eggs too.... which would be why it got it's name. But yellow is really neat too!

(Larry, by the way, I have rejoined with a new google acount, as I have divided my blog into three separate sites. You can find the links on my profile)

Gigi Ann said...

I have never heard or seen an egg plant before. I would love to try and grow it. Could it be grown as an indoor plant. Like say on my sunny enclosed porch?

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I'd love to try them. If you are able to collect seeds let me know. I'd be happy to trade some of the seeds I've collected from some of my flowers.

L. D. said...

The plant is an annual. I have found out info that it grows to 4 and a half foot in Texas as well as it will grow in Canada. I found a website where people were talking about it and I know that they need to be started inside to give it a head start. I will reblog about this later on and I will refer to you three and any others at the time to let you know when I can send them. They really are a lot of fun.
I think it could be grown on the inside as I started a bunch in the large picture window.

Ezhilan said...

We call this as bringal. We used them in our food preparation regularly. But I didn't see this type(color) of eggplants. We have green and violet eggplants and they turned into yellow when matured.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I have seen this plant in the seed catalogues.. I always wondered about it. You have the photos to prove it can be grown! It is very cool as a specialty/unusual plant:)

The Retired One said...

Larry, thanks for this generous offer...I would love some seeds if you can dry them out. I too would grow it indoors as the U.P. climate would be too harsh I am afraid. And because I would probably forget to bring them in for the winter. When you dry them out, please email me at my email address and I will give you my mailing address and money to mail them to me.

MJ Rose said...

A neighbor has a plant and gave me an "egg" back in Sept. when it was white. She said to hold on to it until it dries and plant the seeds next spring. It's turned brown and wrinkled now - should I just keep it on a shelf until spring, or open it and save the seeds only....? How do you do it?

L. D. said...

My neighbor broke up her dried egg and scattered the dried out seeds in a flower pot. Then she gave them to me. I think I will cut mine into and put the seeds out on a paper towel to dry out faster. I read once that they are a member of the nightshade family so keep your hands cleaned up. And yet one guy had a recipe for eating them so I am confused about their safety. Thanks for checking in on my blog and good luck.

MJ Rose said...

thanks! I put hibiscus seeds in a baggie in the refrigerator over the winter and they always are good in the spring. Maybe I'll do the same with this. I'll be curious to see how yours turn out!