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~ Some special HOT PEPPER Seed (Chilli or Chile Peppers) ~ We have tried huge numbers of early hot peppers, and here offer the best. Peppers for every taste, in many different colours and shapes! Again, many are very early to help with short British summers, and some are of more unusual species such as Capsicum pubescens and Capsicum baccatum. Some are called 'Aji' - a generic term in S. America for the baccatum species: they have thin wrinkled walls, and although they can be very hot, the heat is somehow gentler compared to common chillies. And in our experience, although a bit later, Aji plants seem to be a bit more robust & tolerant of cool weather than other chilli peppers. If you have problems with downy mildew on your peppers, in our experience they are completely immune! Please order your seeds in time. You really need to plant them by the start of March at the very latest to have any chance of a decent crop. TIP: An electric propagator is ideal for starting chilli seed,but if you don't have one, you can still get excellent results by improvising with a warm airing cupboard, a radiator shelf or anywhere that is around 28-38C for at least a few hours in each day. Once germinated, the seedlings will grow on at lower temperatures. We grew some excellent plants this spring when our propagator was full by starting seed on the counter next to our Rayburn & then growing on in a sunny windowsill. 'Gelbe Kirschen' (Yellow Cherries) This is a rare and beautiful variety from Kosovo, which not only produces huge numbers of very hot round yellow chillis, but also looks great in a pot as a decorative plant too. We use it to make a very hot bright yellow chilli relish sauce. Order HPGK - 20 seed £1.49 Early Green Jalapeño Finally, a jalapeño pepper that will mature in the UK! We were really excited to discover this extra-early strain to grow in your greenhouse or polytunnel. Jalapeño peppers are fleshy with distinctive blunt-tipped, cigar shaped fruit with the traditional 'jalapeño' corky marks on the skin. Easy to grow, and quite hot, too. Mmmm! Early variety - traditional shape, just really quick. Order HPEJ - 20 seed £1.39 Yellow Ají Aji are a slightly different species of chilli pepper, with small green dots on the inside of the flower petals and a distinct fruity flavour. They make huge bushes about 3 feet across, covered with hundreds of large, long, dangly, wrinkled peppers. These are mild when green - and stay green for a long time, so we offer it as a prolific, crunchy, and mild chilli pepper. But it does eventually go yellowy-orange, and becomes very hot at that point, so you can have them as a hot pepper if you prefer. If the plants are happy you'll get a huge crop and we include a very nice chutney recipe to use up the surplus. Mild green / hot yellow Order HPYA - 20 seed £1.65 'Wenks Yellow Hots' This particularly pretty yellow chilli was developed by the late Erris Wenk, of Alberquerque, New Mexico, who was a truck-farmer (we would say a market gardener) specialising in hot peppers. It does nicely in Europe too. It is a quite-hot chilli that is a bright lemon yellow, as you can see, and it is one of the prettiest we've ever grown. (It eventually ripens through orange and then to red.) The unusal thing about it is how thick and crisp the walls of the chillies are (they are best described as a blunt sort of jalapeno shape), and with a beautiful shiny yellow skin. Both yellow and orange are displayed on the plant at the same time, so it is quite ornamental. It is really pretty early to fruit , and good for making pickled peppers as it keeps its 'crunchiness' well. Order HPYH - 20 seed £1.75 'Rote Keile' Another very attractive cherry chilli bush to about 3 feet tall, this time from the former Yugoslavia. We were impressed by the productivity of these - the bushes have hundreds of small slightly ovoid green chillis, which soon turn a rather fetching shade of orange, and then ripen to a glowing red. The picture was taken before most of them ripened, a few weeks later the plant was much brighter to look at. And a word of warning - as well as being very productive, it's really quite hot! Order HPRK - 20 seed [OG1] £1.65 'Long Rote Keile' From the original Rote Keile seed, we found a couple plants that were a different type. This is often the case with these older landraces, a sign of their historic diversity. We rather liked these as well, so we are offering them here. This is the first new one - a very pointy red version of the Rote Keile pepper, again both early and incredibly productive on tall bushes about 3ft high. The chillis are about an inch long and pointed like a fang. Only a very few packets available this year. Order HPLK - 25 seed [OG1] £1.65 'Orange Keile' Here is another pleasing selection we made from the original Rote Keile landrace. As you can see, the slightly more oval fruit mature to bright orange instead of red. They are still very hot, and you do still get silly numbers of fruit on each plant. Only a very few packets available this year. All gone! 'Westlandse Lange Rode' This is a traditional big long red chilli from The Netherlands. It has been grown in Europe for a long time, and this particular strain has been selected and improved for northern conditions by Harry & Chris Bauwers for the past thirty years. We are really happy to be able to offer it again after a gap of a year. The fruit are about half an inch across, and quite long - up to 6 inches or so. It does very well even in our less-than-sunny summers and is quite popular - it is worth trying outdoors if you have a nice sunny spot, even in Holland. Medium to "really-quite-hot". Order HPWL - 20 seed [CO1] £1.75 'Iranian Round' Big Cherry Chilli This chilli is nice and early with loads of heat. We bred this hot cherry pepper ourselves, from an early fruiting variety collected in Iran in 1944. The tall plants soon set lots of spherical bright red fruit about an inch across - just the size of a cherry tomato - but much, much spicier. Ideal for using fresh or drying. The original seed collected in 1944 was supposedly sweet - but when we grew it out, we had a real shock when we munched the first one as they were ALL ferociously hot. It was a very good chilli pepper, just mis-labelled on the original collecting expedition. We liked the round ones best, so selected for that shape, carried on breeding, and ended up with this variety. (We have also learnt to nibble cautiously on any new, so-called 'sweet' pepper we try out!) Very prolific - bushy 2' tall plants soon set lots and lots of 1" diameter chillies. Hot cherry type. Green -> red later Order HPiR - 25 seed [OG1] £1.60 'Bartlett's Bonnet' Chilli A very unusual variety for the chilli collector: This is a 'friar's hat' shaped chilli - with a bell-shaped middle and funny 'wings' sticking out - and very hot. It is moderately late, and needs to be grown under cover. This variety was originally sent to us by Anne Bartlett from Portugal, her plant was in its third year when she sent us seed. But you can just grow them as an annual - its much easier! Hot hot hot. Greenhouse or Polytunnel only. This year's seed grown for us by Anne herself. Order HPBB - 20 seed [OG1] £1.85 'Albertos Locoto' (C. pubescens) Now here's something different. Sometimes known as the Tree Chile or Rocoto, this rare and unusual pepper is unique - it has fuzzy leaves, beautiful purple flowers, and - believe it or not - black seeds. Huge numbers of pretty, 1.5" pendant fruit with thick flesh slowly go from green to deep red. We grow it as an annual pepper in the usual fashion, and get lots of ripe fruit in October. (But note you can also grow it as as a perennial, overwintering indoors, & plant can fruit for several years. This is moderately easy - if you can overwinter fuschias or geraniums, you will have no trouble with this beautiful plant. ) We use the fruit to spice up pasta sauces and keep some in vinegar for later in the year. They are pretty hot but it is a warming rather than burning heat, and they have lots of flavour too. Very, very rare. A different species! Limited stock - order early Order HPAL - 14 seed [OG1] £2.35 Pretty in Purple First offered back in 2004, this is absolutely beautiful. We'll bet you've never seen a vegetable this colour before! Miniature little bushes, with purple stems, rise to about 10" high and are covered in erect little peppers. These may be small, but they are fiery hot, and excellent for use in cooking, or shredded in fresh salsa sauce. These start out fluorescent purple, and later ripen to a whole range of pinks, reds, purples and oranges, making an even more spectacular display. Probably best under cover, except in the south. Miniature pepper. Pretty in a pot on the patio. (No we haven't retouched the photo, they really are that colour!) Note: This is quite a wild-type chilli, and the germination is slower than the more domesticated varieties. The seed is perfectly good, it just germinates step-wise over a longer period. Plant the whole packet so you'll be sure to get at least 15 that come up pretty quickly. Order HPPP - 20 seed £1.75   'Lemon Drop' LEMON FLAVOURED At last a strong lemon-chilli! Another very rare one: robust bushes (about 2' tall) with dainty leaves, covered in little green chillies that ripen to bright yellow. Very, very hot, with a strong lemon flavour. When you cut them they really do smell - and taste - strongly of lemons! Fruits ripen in early autumn - but very productive and decorative - good in a pot on the patio. Lemon-flavoured Aji from Peru. Order HPLD - 20 seed £1.69 Yellow Ají Aji are a slightly different species of chilli pepper, with a small green dots on the inside of the flower petals and a distict fruity flavour. They make huge bushes about 3 feet across, covered with hundreds of large, long, dangly, wrinkled peppers. These are mild when green - and stay green for a long time, so we offer it as a prolific, crunchy, and mild chilli pepper. But it does eventually go yellowy-orange, and becomes very hot at that point, so you can have them as a hot pepper if you prefer. If the plants are happy you'll get a huge crop and we include a very nice chutney recipe to use up the surplus. Mild green / hot yellow . . . .and sadly, sold out (feb 2008). We do have a good red sweet Aji pepper in the Sweet Peppers section that you could try instead. 'Wenks Yellow Hots' This particularly pretty yellow chilli was developed by the late Erris Wenk, of Alberquerque, New Mexico, who was a truck-farmer (we would say a market gardener) specialising in hot peppers. It does nicely in Europe too. It is a medium hot chilli that is a bright lemon yellow, as you can see, and it is one of the prettiest we've ever grown. (It eventually ripens through orange and then to red.) The unusal thing about it is how thick and crisp the walls of the chillies are (they are best described as a blunt sort of jalapeno shape), and with a beautiful shiny yellow skin. Both yellow and orange are displayed on the plant at the same time, so it is quite ornamental. It is really pretty early to fruit , and good for making pickled peppers as it keeps its 'crunchiness' well. Order HPYH - 20 seed £1.75 'Rote Keile' Another very attractive cherry chilli bush to about 3 feet tall, this time from the former Yugoslavia. We were impressed by the productivity of these - the bushes have hundreds of small slightly ovoid green chillis, which soon turn a rather fetching shade of orange, and then ripen to a glowing red. The picture was taken before most of them ripened, a few weeks later the plant was much brighter to look at. And a word of warning - as well as being very productive, it's really quite hot! Order HPRK - 20 seed [OG1] £1.65 'Long Rote Keile' From the original Rote Keile seed, we found a couple plants that were a different type. This is often the case with these older landraces, a sign of their historic diversity. We rather liked these as well, so we are offering them here. This is the first new one - a very pointy red version of the Rote Keile pepper, again both early and incredibly productive on tall bushes about 3ft high. The chillis are about an inch long and pointed like a fang. Only a very few packets available this year. Order HPLK - 25 seed [OG1] £1.65 'Orange Keile' Here is another pleasing selection we made from the original Rote Keile landrace. As you can see, the slightly more oval fruit mature to bright orange instead of red. They are still very hot, and you do still get silly numbers of fruit on each plant. Only a very few packets available this year. All gone! 'Westlandse Lange Rode' This is a traditional big long red chilli from The Netherlands. It has been grown in Europe for a long time, and this particular strain has been selected and improved for northern conditions by Harry & Chris Bauwers for the past thirty years. We are really happy to be able to offer it again after a gap of a year. The fruit are about half an inch across, and quite long - up to 6 inches or so. It does very well even in our less-than-sunny summers and is quite popular - it is worth trying outdoors if you have a nice sunny spot, even in Holland. Medium to "really-quite-hot". Order HPWL - 20 seed [CO1] £1.75 'Alma Paprika' A large and unusual chilli, this has beautiful round fruit as big as an apple with a distinctive nipple at the bottom. The flesh is thick like a bell pepper, crunchy, and very hot once it is ripe. You can see that it really is quite big - those are chard leaves it is sitting on in the photo. We like this because it is so unusual for a chilli to have such thick flesh. It starts out a beautiful crystal yellow - as shown above - and does then ripen to a deep red. Order HPAP - 20 seed £1.70 PS: The blue cornflower in the picture is just for decoration, not from the chilli plant. :-) Can't decide? Then why not try . . . The 2008 Chilli Collection ! This is a neat and ferociously hot collection of four interesting and contrasting chilli varieties from our catalogue. Large Red Cherry chilli 'Iranian Round' Green 'Early Jalapeño' chilli large apple chilli 'Alma Paprika' Long Red European heirloom chilli 'Westlandse Lange Rode' These are all particularly early & easy to grow, with the different colours and shapes making a fantastic contrast in the greenhouse or polytunnel. Also a great gift for the spicy gardener in your life. Order MC043 - £6.40 Saving Pepper Seed: Here Kate is collecting seed from 'Lantern' chillies. (The rubber gloves only last about an hour before the chilli oil eats through them) After that we pick out any empty or misshapen seeds. The left-over seedless fruit are chopped up & made into wickedly hot chutney! Chillies are great but the effort (and pain!) involved in seed production are why we only have limited packets available each year.