Thursday, November 11, 2010

Elderberry Blunder

In May I planted 2 Elderberry bushes, which they grew quite large over the summer. About the end of August I noticed "berries" starting to form. Checking them later, the berries were getting too large to be elderberries and they were green oval shape and very hard. Took a picture of the bush and the exposed berries to the nursery where I purchased the bushes and they were stumped. Only thought they had was perhaps they were gooseberries. They offered me a gift certificate to use the following year to purchase "elderberry bushes." Well, days went by, and the berries kept on growing and pulling the foliage of the bush down to the ground. Finally took the time and really investigated..............."They were tomatoes!" The tomato grew there because of spreading compost around the bush. The tomato plant was completed covered by the leaves of the elderberry and just the tomatoes were peeking out. They were a variety called "Health Kick" which stayed hard. I did go back to the nursery to tell them of the blunder and give back the gift certificate which was about $30. They laughed and told me to keep it. A few weeks later I discovered another tomato plant growing under the other bush.

 "Berries" hanging at bottom on left.
 Now they look like tomatoes!

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