i planted eggplant but got this it has grown very slowly and I only have one. It has had the bloom on it for a week but was slowly extending out from the bud that looks like a purple ocra. It bloomed tonight so I'm thinking it's a night blooming plant. Have no idea what it is but it is pretty.

Glenn, I second the id on the datura. Eggplant has smaller flowers and okra has a different flower, closer to the plant, smaller and different color.

Well that is a interesting volunteer. I do know other datura like moon flower but It never even crossed my mind that it was a datura. I wonder if this one is a perennial

Def. datura.

Here are some pix of eggplant blooms, FYI, tho they can be darker, brighter purple than this:

BTW, also FYI, eggplant (along w/ tomatoes, peppers and datura) is in the nightshade family, while okra is in the hibiscus family...

I knew it was not eggplant or ocra since I grow those most years but thank you for the pretty pictures.

I have no idea how that datura got in my garden it came up in my raised veggie bed were I planted eggplant that never came up. I moved the datura to the pot it is in. It most be pretty tough since I ask my daughter to bring it to me. she knows how to lift a plant from the ground but for some reason she just ripped it up by the roots and brought it to me. Some how it survived. The bloom is a triple which makes even more of a surprise.

Was it purchased seed? Datura seed looks very much like eggplant and could easily go unnoticed.

And is that a stump from something in the center of the pot?

Carol it was purchased seed I got it at truvalue. Yes that is a log I put in the center of the pot. it's oak. I often have another pot settings on it.

That's commonly called double purple datura, and I think I sent you some seeds at some point. Datura seeds are weird. Sometimes they don't sprout for years, then if you toss the soil into the compost pile, they'll sprout. They love compost, and yes, the are tough since they are basically weeds in their natural habitat. Their seeds don't look like eggplant seed at all, so it had to be some that was just left over. If you added compost to that area before you planted the eggplant, that probably spurred it to grow and bloom.

It will put out seeds now. Wait until the seed pod splits, then collect the seed. I have the best luck planting them in the spring, or just tossing them into a pot and leaving them outside through the winter. Hornworms love them, and sometimes will strip them bare, but they'll come back.

Don't water it too much. They like to be rather dry.

Deb I think you did but i put those seeds in pots but that might be how it got there. Those pots got knocked over buy a cat . Maybe somehow it made it there. I never plant anything but veggies in that bed and at first I thought I had a strange eggplant but it just wasn't right so it got moved. hopefully it can take another move. I'm going to move it were the little ones don't go so they won't mess with it.