Peppers are one of my favourite plants to grow. There are so many interesting varieties and unusual species to try that extend well beyond the green bell available at your local supermarket. They never fail to capture my interest.

My books You Grow Girl and Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces contain sections on growing, cooking, and preserving with both hot and sweet pepper varieties.

• How to overwinter hot peppers: Parts 1 and 2.
• The pepper plant that I grew in my office.
• Grow ornamental and edible peppers in containers on your front stoop.

Hot Peppers
• ‘Chinese Ornamental’ will produce in a very small pot.
• ‘Chinese Five Colour’ is one of the most beautiful pepper plants.
• ‘Red Rocoto’ is unusual with black seeds and hairy leaves.
• ‘Orchid’ aka ‘Aji Flor’ is a beautiful Peruvian variety.
• Chiltepin hot peppers are considered to be the wild mother of all cultivated C. annuum peppers.

Sweet and Mild Seasoning Peppers
• Little Beak aka ‘Pimenta Biquinho’ a seasoning pepper from Brazil.
• ‘Mini Chocolate Bell’
• ‘Purple Beauty’ is a sweet bell pepper that I can’t recommend enough. It does well in medium-sized containers (try at least a foot and a half deep).
• ‘Trinidad Perfume’ is a fruity seasoning pepper that looks like an Habanero.