Green Lanterns and their Distant Cousins

Vasanta (Spring) brings magic with him which seems to make the plants grow faster. I wish he did the same to my seeds too [SIGH]!

I've been talking about my mystery plants in my past two posts which has grown really well now. the pots occupied by them were intended to be populated by the most eagerly expected Columbine and Lavender, but I ended up with these.

Thanks to my instincts that I didn't decide to pull these out. Their flowers weren't so catchy at first sight

unless you look close to appreciate its beauty.

I waited not for too long to see these tiny lanterns hanging on the leaf axils.

Soon the entire branch seemed dotted by tiny lanterns.

The other two species were slow to flower but grew very fast. 

For an Urban-bred guy like me, identifying a plant was really difficult and I had to browse through pages in the Internet with my lame keywords like five petaled,

pear-shaped fruits, 

yellow flower,

and so on, to find so many flowers and plants, but as my luck would have it, I found the identity really soon.

The so-called weeds belonged to Physalis family! Three cheers to Tyra for identifying it!

This one below I think is Physalis minima.

And one among these twins seems like Physalis peruviana

and other could be Physalis pubescens or Physalis viscosa

or may be I am wrong about IDying all the three's exact species, because all the species in the Genus Physalis look almost the same but for few minute differences. May be the experienced gardeners out there should be able to help me :)

To my dismay last week three fruits dropped down from the plant.

Thinking they were ripe I ignored the first two instances, but the berries were green inside. The third drop alarmed me 'coz it's fruit was smaller than the first two!

The ants seem to love whatever their flowers are offering and thankfully I saved them from the mealybugs and aphids as I found it initially and I'll definitely be on the lookout for possible future attacks, as I don't want to lose these precious guests who seem to have settled in Plantville.

Physalis minima seems like vigorous plant than the other two as the lanterns soon turned bigger making the plant a fantastic sight. In the evenings I touched these hanging lanterns, almost expecting them to light up. I know, I know, it's the aftereffect of watching Avatar thrice! :D

One thing that I learnt from my reading about these is that the plants would grow more berries if fertilized! I was shocked to learn the fact! I did fertilize it once in the beginning before knowing this and I hope the plants don't curse me for nourishing them a bit extra!

So when do I ever harvest these lanterns? Some seem really big but the husk is still green... Would they change color? If so how long should a poor impatient gardener wait?

While these lanterns are growing well, there's their cousin sitting in two other pots nearby.

I was so excited about these soon-to-be-bulbs! (I mean bulb as in bulb bulb and not the bulb bulb like the bulbs from which plants grow :D)

One of the bush tomato seedlings as mentioned in my previous posts has given out many small bulbs but now its leaves have curled upwards.

I was scared ****less! That's my first veggie and I can't afford to lose them! I looked under the leaves for aphids or mealybugs - none.

There weren't any coloration on the back of leaves to suggest viral infection.

Is it just a physiological curl? Oh god! Let it be just that. The other two seedlings seem normal though!

But the new growth from the bigger seedling is slightly curled too. Am I to worry about this? Should I scream HELP!? What say you?