Ornamental Peppers | Capsicum Annuum
Plant this annual to spice up your garden or containers with long-lasting color.
available in the Garden Center
FIRST THINGS FIRST – Are ornamental peppers edible?
Ornamental peppers are safe to eat, but they are normally grown for their attractive color and ornamental qualities rather than their flavor, which you may find disappointing. Most people consider them too hot to enjoy anyway. Peppers bred for culinary use produce better fruit for eating.
ORNAMENTAL PEPPERS FOR SEASONAL COLOR
Within the scope of gardening, some plants blur the boundary between being simply and stunningly beautiful and being edible. Capsicum annuum, ornamental pepper, is definitely a case of an edible, making the crossover to the ornate. Bushy, glossy green foliage and colorful fruit that stand in upright clusters at the end of the stems combine to create an outstanding ornamental plant.
The fruit comes in shades of red, purple, yellow, orange, black or white, and the peppers change colors as they ripen, so you may see several different colors on the same plant. Use them as bedding plants in the garden or plant them in pots so you can enjoy them on sunny decks and patios. Most of these ornamental peppers are rarely over twenty inches tall with a similar width. The small leaves and spreading nature add to these plants as functional groundcovers. Some ornamental peppers even have attractive foliage, many being reddish or purple in color.
Whether grown indoors or out, ornamental peppers need bright sun to produce fruitand will thrive in the bed, border or container. Ornamental peppers require little care. Drainage is vital and they don’t mind rich or amended soils. Some fertilization may be in order, particularly for container specimens and while these peppers all have some degree of drought tolerance and like it hot, don’t let them dry out. Keep up with a watering regime that accommodates a moist and well-drained situation.
The traditional colors of autumn can be found in ornamental peppers, making them a long time late summer/early fall favorite in any garden, Some varieties of ornamental peppers can be found in variegated forms while others produce multiple fruit colors on the same plant. The growth habit of most peppers is mounded and upright, and they come in a range of fruit and foliage colors. They are especially striking when planted en masse and serve as an excellent border plant.
Container Gardening With Ornamental Peppers
They really spice up the scene when utilized within containers on the porch and patio. Their vibrant colors are complemented beautifully when paired with garden chrysanthemums, fall pansies, ornamental cabbage and kale, grasses and cascading ivy. When creating container designs with these vibrant and stunning peppers, choose plants with complementary textures (fine, bold, airy, or spiky), colors, and habits. Utilizing a selection of late-summer/early fall blooming , colorful foliage plants with either vertical, mounding, bushy, or cascading habits gives you a complementary arrangement with an appearance that just flows.
Three examples of our usage of ornamental peppers complemented with cabbages, kales, chrysanthemums, ivys and grasses are shown below. Stop by and browse our selections of planted porch and patio containers. For the do-it-yourselfers we have a diverse selection of fine containers available; as well as potting soils and fertilizers with which to create your own phenomenal garden dsplay.
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CORNAMENTAL PEPPERS
CHRYSANTHEMUM
DRACENA
CORNAMENTAL PEPPERS
CHRYSANTHEMUM
IVY
CORNAMENTAL PEPPERS
ORNAMENTAL KALE
CHRYSANTHEMUM
For The Do-It-Yourselfers
Create Your Own And Save 50% OFF Any One Container
Create your own porch | patio garden container and save 30% on the purchase of any of our unique empty garden containers. We have a diverse selection of sizes, colors, textures, and shapes from ceramic to clay to plastic garden pots for container gardening and porch/patio decor.
Potting soils and fertilizers are also available in the garden center.
