Treat it as an annual. It's frost tender. If you have very light frosts - no more than -3C it will probably winter over and become a small (ha!) bush, somewhat sprawling... Nothing too rich, by way of soils - just moist and well-drained. Sun gives a lower bush, but part shade with other shrubby things can give some frost and wind shelter. About six hours sun a day.

I'd get it started about now, as you would for tomatoes, and grow it on in pots until you can plant it out in the garden once all the frosts are past. It needs a long growing season and warmth. Be generous with the water while it's bulking up.

The flowers are a bit like potato flowers but soft yellow. Not flashy. If you have to put it into a flower bed for warmth - put it toward the back. It's not a plant to win admiration.

If it is left in the ground over the winter, the little husks become skeletonised, the fruit withers and the seeds are liberated as the wind shakes the stems. A censer distribution. You could well find it popping up again next year, but it probably won't reach fruiting size in time. You could try potting on some of the seedlings and over wintering to give you a head start for the following season.

You can make jam with them. Not a great set - and anyone with false teeth will not thank you. (Put the mix through a strainer is best.) Personally, I prefer the fruit raw, when it's deep yellow. Pop the husk to check.

When the birds discover what you've done you'll have competition for the fruit.

In the right conditions it can become weedy/mildly invasive. Hopefully, you have enough frost to keep its ambitions in check.

Thank you, Vetivert8, that just about covers everything. But in the UK we would not be starting tomatoes just yet, would we?? I've fallen under the influence of the wintersowing forum and the sands are shifting under my feet as we speak! I no longer know what is possible or impossible where seeds are concerned. But there'll be loads of seed so I'm prepared to try anything.

We got our seeds from some Amish folks --they grow them for Jam --last year they grew to be like 2 feet off the ground they are called Tomitillo's here or the sweeter onces Amish Gooseberries or Cape Gooseberries
very tasty --we eat them right from the bush --make sure you don;t eat them till the hull is like paper and the fruit is yellow or they are posionous -they can get very sweet --but we loved em
Also they will reseed --the Amish folks told us --grow em where you want em --cos you will always have em
Janice the Brit

I'm trying the groundcherry this year. It's been growing well but I haven't had any flowers yet (unlike my toms and chillies). I have a question, though. Should I be pinching out extra sideshoots (as with tomatoes?) I noticed one plant has started to do this and I'm not sure whether I should get rid of them or leave be.

I haven't bothered with the orange, husky sort of physalis because I decided I didn't like the taste very much!

What I have got is some nice little plants of "Purple de Milpa" tomatillo. Half-price seeds from somewhere! Would these be P. ixocarpa?

Trouble is, it's going to be a squeeze, shoe-horning them into the allotment somewhere. It's got to the stage where nothing can go in unless something else comes out....

Don't suppose this one's decorative as well, is it?

Garden Nerd

What you bought in the supermarket, as outlined comprehensively by Simon H above, is almost certainly physalis peruviana.

And in Britain they grow differently from the US, because of our much cooler climate. I started mine 4 years ago from supermarket seed and put them in the unheated greenhouse.

They grew quite tall, but did nothing the first year. They died right back and then came up again the following year. I got flowers in late October but in my unheated greenhouse nothing ripened that year. The third year (and also this year) the plant started flowering even before the regrowth was full size. I have already little lanterns developing. Last year they flowered pretty much all sunmmer and I got a good harvest from July onwards. They are delicious and keep for months inside their lanterns. A few fruit inevitably escaped and fell to the ground but I had no self seeded plants spring up from them. I don't know how long the plant will live - it is still looking very good this year.

The other physalis I am growing is ph pubescent. These are much smaller annual plants the size of aubergine plants, which produce smaller lanterns and fruit the size of a large blackcurrant/small cherry. They also grow better in the greenhouse. From a sowing with the tomatoes I now see the first flower buds on mine. Their fruits are delicious too. They drop their lanterns as a sign that the fruit inside is ripe. As a consequence they are said to self seed like mad and become invasive in USA gardens as a consequence, but this has not happened here in the greenhouse. The fruit also keeps for months.

i live in spain and my physalis is doing fine this is its second year and it has loads of flowers it only flowered last year too late i think for the fruit to ripen.. it has yellow flowers with black in the centre i can not find out what type it is the seeds were from a fruit i had in a restaurant

Sorry Garden Nerd

You wrote: I haven't bothered with the orange, husky sort of physalis because I decided I didn't like the taste very much! What I have got is some nice little plants of "Purple de Milpa" tomatillo. Half-price seeds from somewhere! Would these be P. ixocarpa?
(end)

I should have read your further post more carefully before replying to the post on the top of the page ;-)

Yes, these are p ixocarpa. I usually stick them in the greenhouse corner and they grow to 6ft. No special treatment like pinching out or the like, I just water them.

They would flop over on their own, but I keep them upright with 4 bamboos and gardentwine around these. A few plants go a long way because they are quite productive, but I am really not sure how they will perform outside.

Best of luck with them. And yes, you can plant them closely.

My Physalis has so many large leaves do I need to remove some shoots or should I leave then all. Thanks Daphne