Chinese lantern plants are tough perennials that give some interesting colour and texture to a garden in the fall and early winter. Their signature “lanterns” are seed pods that start out green and mature to a bright pumpkin-orange at the end of the growing season in early fall. When the orange lanterns start to degrade, they leave behind an equally interesting lantern shaped white lattice that surrounds the ripe orange berry within.
The plants are easy to grow….a little too easy. I’m glad my first attempt failed though. The first plant I bought was purchased in the winter, so basically I bought a little planter that “said” there was a Chinese lantern that would appear in the spring.
But it didn’t. And that wasn’t a bad thing, because I’d planted it straight into the garden. I learned later that it’s an extremely aggressive and invasive plant when let loose, so the next one I bought went into a pot. That one grew well and I enjoyed it for a few years on the back deck before thanking it for it’s service and letting it move on.
I’ve seen a few homes around here that made the mistake of giving them freedom in the garden, and they have ended up pretty much everywhere that there is soil in which to grow. This one is growing in a home some blocks away; the home has a magnificent garden space and when we stopped to take some photos the owner happened to arrive home and park right behind me. She said “Feel free to pick some and take it home“…. he said “Yes…it’s EVERYWHERE!“
Apparently they also didn’t know the plant’s potential when it went into the ground.
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