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Nicandra physalodes |
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| Common name |
shoe-fly plant |
| Family |
solanaceae |
| Life cycle |
annual |
| Flowers |
blue (summer) |
| Size |
4-6' |
| Light |
sun-part shade |
| Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil |
From seed  |
germinate at room temperature; self-seeds
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Large, leafy annual, covered in powder-blue flowers in mid-late summer. We grew this once on purpose, and have had it in varying amount from reseeding in the following years. One year only a few smaller plants re-appeared - I guess I weeded them out too well. It's not appeared in recent years. If I ever wish to re-establish them in our garden, the key will be to find the right balance between rampant reseeding and wholesale removal...
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This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away... Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list About my plant portraits
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Rhonda Wright | Apr 26, 2005 | I know you here this all the time, but I love your website. I can spend hours looking at all the unusual plants. Is the height on this actually 4-6"? It doesn't look giant.
This particular one stayed small, having self-seeded in a more shaded area. When properly grown, they get quite large. I'm sure I've seen 5' on mine in years past. |
| Jane | May 14, 2005 | We grew monster sized physalodes last summer, grew to over 5 feet! We have very little sun in a basement garden 200 yds from the sea in East Sussex. |
| Diana | Jul 15, 2005 | Rob,
I found one in my backyard in California and decided to let it grow. It's now about 8 feet tall in a part sunny location! |
| Newton | Jul 29, 2005 | My Shoe Fly Plants are 5' high, have blossomed well and now have lots of fruit. Can I use the fruit?
I don't think so. Although it's not been established that the plants or fruits are poisonous, most sources caution against consuming any part of the plant. For example, this page. |
| Beverly Wallis | Aug 21, 2005 | I have just moved and find I have a shoo-fly plant in a large pot in my yard. my yard. I live in Palmer, Alaska. I need to know how to store it for winter. I understand that it doesn't get as cold as other parts of Alaska here. Could you help me.
Nicandra is an annual, and will die back after it completes its seed cycle, no matter what the temperature. Make sure to collect some seed, and start some new plants in spring. |
| Susanlynne | Dec 04, 2005 | The Shoe Fly Plant is also a host plant to the lovely beautiful sphinx moths, also called hawk moths. Don't be surprised if you find the green or brown sphinx moths munching on the foliage, and please allow them some food. They will eat and then go to ground to make their cocoons in the soil. There are the beautiful hummingbird moths that you sometimes see flying during the daytime!
Susan |
| David Roberts | Sep 03, 2006 | We found a Shoo-fly plant in a small car park of our local N.Wales church, it has grownthrough a layer of bitumen road scapings which were placed on soil and used to make a surface for parking. the scapings were brought from close by, but no evidence of a Shoo-fly plant could be found in that area. |
| Stuart Smith | Jul 14, 2008 | I am the Community Police Officer for Saltburn-by-the-Sea, England and Vice-Chairman of Saltburn In Bloom. The town is entered in Northumbria in Bloom and Britain In Bloom Compititions. I have the Shoe Fly Plant in the Police Station gardens and it always gets positive comments by passers by. The best way of reproduction is to collect the seed in winter and re-seed in the spring indoors. |
| Jean Ford | Sep 12, 2008 | your site is very informative and helpful. I first had a Shoe fly plant given to me by a works colleque. They stayed small where i lived in Rochford Essex. Now I have moved and live in Shoeburyness near southend on sea. Planted my shoefly and to my supprise it is now approximately 4ft high and spreading. |
| Maryanne Starcher.....zone 5 | Sep 30, 2008 | This summer was my first attempt to try Nicandra Physalodes, Black Rod from J.L. Hudson Co. I live in a flood zone area and my garden soil is black carlisle muckland. My garden sat underwater for three days and I lost many hundreds of seeds. I ended up with only three Nicandra Physolodes, Black Rod
along with several other types of plants. The plants grew about six feet high
and about 4 feet wide. What beautiful flowers and seedpods. I just finished
collecting the seedpods for next year to replant and trade.
Plan to try the varigated nicandra physalodes, Splash of Cream, offered by
Fragrant Path and J.L. Hudson for next year. |
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Last modified:
May 18, 2008
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