Lessons from the garden: the hitchhiker

Last August I bought a plant from the nursery and it came with a hitchhiker plant – a little seedling that I had not intended to purchase. It was of a different species but too young for me to identify then. As I repotted my plant, I repotted my hitchhiker plant along with it. After a few weeks, it became apparent that the hitchhiker was one with many names – eggplant, brinjal, terung, aubergine. Well, what a pleasant surprise. There was no room in the garden for the eggplant yet, so it stayed in the pot for several more months. The pot restricted its growth and it was competing for room with my other plant. They continued to grow, but clearly neither was thriving.

In January this year, I finally found time to make room for the eggplant in the garden. Planted alongside the Thai basils and Mexican sunflowers, it quickly set its roots and grew rapidly, as though to make up for the months of restricted existence. Over the weeks, it grew taller and taller. By April, it had grown so tall that it towered over me. I pruned it so it would branch out instead and it continued to grow. 

In June, flower buds began to emerge on the hitchhiker. The eggplant typically blooms 60-90 days after germinating. The hitchhiker was 7 months late. A late bloomer, but still productive in its own time. I was excited about the purple fruits that would soon develop and planned for the braised dish I could cook with them. I checked on the flowers every day, pleased about the abundance of flowers without paying much attention…until four days ago. I noticed that there were more flowers in each cluster than there normally would be. Then it occurred to me that this hitchhiker might not be who I was expecting it to be. Instead of the long Asian/Chinese eggplant, this was a pea eggplant (terung pipit, turkey berry, Solanum torvum)! There was a brief moment of disappointment but it slowly transformed into curiosity. This was a lesson on the acceptance of change. It was not a mistake by the flower or the plant. Perhaps if I had focused my attention on what is growing sooner, I would have skipped the brief moment of disappointment altogether. Breathe in, breathe out. It is what it is. I now have a terung pipit plant. I can’t cook braised eggplant, but I could cook sambal and curry!

Journey of the hitchhiker pea eggplant: January 2025, March 2025 & June 2025