Physalis alkekengi (common names: Alkekengi)

thanks both, i guess mine is not suited to a cold welsh house!

Hi Tickley. Isabella has it easy for this type of plant in warm Attika. I have some but I grow them as an annual which is easy because it grows like mad from seed. I take it that your's never fruited so that makes it difficult. Firstly, if you want to overwinter it, I would definitely transfer it to a pot with good drainage then, if you don't have a greenhouse, find it somewhere cool and dry for the winter. Or you could just take it into a warm house and treat it as a, well, house plant. I've never tried that but I have heard that it works. But still give it drainage. The unpleasant chemicals and salts need to wash through.

John.

Hi - I grow this plant outdoors in Greece - and evfen though I like it - I would rather not have plated it ever in open soil, as it spreads like wildweed.
the Physalis will die back in winter and come back up in spring to flower white and fruit with it's orange lanterns. Those can be dried and little fairy lights in them will make them look very attractive. Left on the plant they'll rott to a lace skeleton of the former veins.
The roots are the problem - if they break up when you try to remove the plant the pieces will generate new plants.
Can be grown from seed as well