A plant from the dark side?

Earlier this year, specifically on Mothers' Day, I was given a plant that had a trio combination of basil, tomato, and cilantro from my mother.  I planted the trio not doing any research on the cilantro plant- which at the time remained nameless to me and insignificant.  It was just another plant after all.  I planted some mint, strawberries and this trio. I felt pleased with my garden and decided it was good enough for me.

Where I live, we've been getting a lot of unexpected rain and my plants were doing wonderfully. Until the rain slowed and I hadn't been around to take care of my plants.  My mints are tough plants and all I need to do (even though they look horrible) is give them some water and I know they will bounce back.  My strawberries have been doing very well in a high weed growing environment, they seem to scare the weeds away actually.  However, when I looked at my trio, I saw something shocking.

My basil and tomato were wilting and not looking very healthy, while the unknown specimen was flourishing and more than 12" tall.  I pulled it out thinking it was a very large weed, but the smell of a sort of salsa sent hit me, and I realized, this was the unknown plant, and it was taking all the water and nutrients from my tomato and basil plants.  I planted the devil in a pot and tied it to some wooden stakes for support. I had never seen this plant before and I didn't know how to use it. It was like some sort of mutant that decided to invade my garden and I had planted it not knowing the danger it caused my plants! So, I decided to do my research.

I went to my cookbook, there I looked up in the index "salsa", I browsed the words for something that I never heard before and saw the words "with fresh cilantro". Dictionary.com aided me with the definition.  I was dealing with a plant that wasn't native to my part of town and it apparently has a split personality with it's name.  I did some more research on it and found out that it actually came from a different country- UK to be precise, I can't remember where it started first but it's been a part of the world since 5000 BC.  I did find out some really good recipes for it tough, but I have no idea what it tastes like so I will make salsa with it first and see where it goes from there. 

Funny thing, there is a place called IHateCilantro.com, check it out, I got a good laugh from it. I mean, who starts a revolution against a plant? I thought it was funny, but maybe some of you readers may decided it's a cause worth fighting for.

Anyway, that's my tale of woe for the day.

Love,

BroadwayChick *mwah*!

P.S. Some of the people looking at this don't know this very important fact. All underlined things that are not the same color as the rest of the text is not just because I'm bored and like to underline things. THEY LEAD TO A WEBSITE! Please don't be confused!

LOVES!