Ornamental peppers are grown for their aesthetic value and can also be used in cooking. They vary in color and growth habit and can be grown indoors or outdoors. Some are extremely hot and it can be difficult to determine their spiciness. It’s best to purchase from a garden store that specializes in edible peppers or grow from seed.
An ornamental pepper is a pepper plant that is grown for its aesthetic value. Many peppers are quite compact and attractive, making them very suitable for decorative uses. In addition to being functional ornamental plants, these peppers can also be used in food and cooking and their fruits have various degrees of spiciness. Many garden supply stores sell ornamental peppers, especially around the winter holidays when they might be known as “Christmas peppers.” They can also be grown from seed.
Like other plants in the Capsicum genus, ornamental peppers like to be kept warm and are very frost tender. They take well to being grown indoors provided they are kept in a sunny spot and the soil is kept moist, though not waterlogged. To shape the pepper, gardeners can pinch back new growth, encouraging the pepper to branch out and grow bushy. For people who like ornamental pepper flowers, the fruits can be removed as soon as they emerge or shortly thereafter, which will encourage the plant to continue flowering.
These peppers vary widely in color and growth habit. Some produce fruit that is so deep purple that it’s almost black, while others produce multi-colored orange, red, and yellow fruit. The foliage can be deep green to purple and when the plant is in good shape as it grows, it can become very bushy. For people in warm climates, ornamental peppers can be planted outdoors to serve as fall foliage, adding some color to the garden as it winds down. To grow an ornamental pepper outdoors, the temperature should never drop below 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius).
Many ornamental peppers are extremely hot. Since they’re sold as ornamental plants rather than food plants, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out what kind of pepper you have, and the only way to know is to try the pepper. You may end up with extremely hot pepper or a very mild, neutral flavor. Peppers can be used fresh in a variety of dishes, or they can be dried and stored in whole or ground form. Remember that most of the heat is in the seeds and the white membrane inside the pepper.
If you plan to use an ornamental pepper for decorating and cooking, you may want to purchase one from a garden store that specializes in edible peppers and other vegetables. The staff can tell you what kind of pepper you have and you can rest assured that no dangerous pesticides or fungicides have been applied to the pepper. You can also grow an ornamental pepper from seeds, which circumvents this risk. If you’re not sure where a pepper comes from, you may want to avoid eating the fruit, instead using the seeds to germinate a new pepper plant.
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