~ Some special HOT PEPPER Seed (Chilli or Chile Peppers) ~

We've got some a selection of early hot peppers for every taste, in different colours and shapes! Some are of more unusual species such as Capsicum pubescens and Capsicum baccatum. All have been chosen from our trials in Wales.

Beginners may not realise that even fresh chilli and pepper seed isnt as easy to germinte as other vegetables, which is why our packets contain more seed than you might need - do sow many extras to be sure of getting enough plants.

'Chocolate Brown' Rocoto or Locoto pepper

Large fruit that are a deep chocolate brown colour. Like all locotos, it has furry leaves, purple flowers and black seeds! A new early locoto first sent to us by Christine Farbäck, who grows them in Sweden.

Large plants to about 3ft tall x 2ft wide. Fruits ready in October-November.

10 seed £

Prairie Fire

Our new pepper for the 2020 season, produced in small batches in our greenouse. This is a compact bush making tiny pointy-oval white peppers that ripen through lemon yellow to a ferocious red. It's beautiful!

Extremely happy growing in a small pot, say on a windowsill - and decorative that way, but you can also grow them in the ground, where they will make slightly larger bushes about a foot across.

Very very hot. We actually have to wear a proper organic-vapour breathing mask to deseed this one! Don't put too many in your dinner! Just a few packets each year

12 seed £

Black Hungarian - A TRULY BLACK CHILLI

In 2006 we did a big chilli pepper trial and this old variety was one of the real stars. It is a very hot & early chilli pepper that really is truly black.

It is one of our favourites, the 1 to 2ft bushes are covered with small conical peppers that are a proper black colour, and a good strong heat too.

Definitely one for those who want to grow something different! Produced for us by the growers at Trill Farm Garden.

14 seed, organic. £

Kristian

An unusual and beautiful long and thin, bright-yellow chilli pepper, on compact bushes about 2ft across. The plants are really pretty in the greenhouse, and it did well in our 2018 trials. Fruits are a couple of inches long.

Good flavour, with a decent amount of heat (about 55,000 on the Scoville scale).

22 seed £

Pyramid - UPRIGHT POINTY FRUIT

A large tasty chilli, with upright clusters of pointy 2-3 inch peppers, on bushes about 1ft wide and high.

The peppers start out luminous yellow-green and then ripen to bright red; their heat raw is quite strong, but it mellows on cooking, so one to three peppers per dish gives a good flavour without being too risky.

Decorative and tasty too!

16 seed, organic. £

Ohnivec - HUGE, CRAZY HOT CHILLI

This is undoubtedly the biggest hot chilli we have ever had - loaded with fruit, almost a foot long and 2 inches wide, starting out a wonderful pale yellow, and ripening through orange to red. They are completely mild when yellow, but don't say we didn't warn you - they really are extremely hot once ripened to orange. Control the heat by picking them at the colour you prefer. The plants are about 2ft tall and 18 inches wide.

Photo shows them growing near Newcastle Emlyn on the west coast of Wales.

18 seed £

Pretty in Purple

We have here an amazing chilli that we love, and which is always popular. First offered back in 2004, we'll bet you've never seen a vegetable this colour before! It makes a bush about 20" tall, covered in incredibly purple little peppers. They then ripen to a whole range of pinks, oranges and reds, so you get all the colours at the same time.

Ideal as a patio or conservatory pot plant, and is very hot, too!

18 seed £

Chinese Dragon Tongue

This new addition is a wonderful chilli - a quick-growing and really productive variety. Quite large bushes a couple of feet tall, making large (5 inches long) fantastic wrinkled, crinkly twisted fruits ripening from lime green to cherry-red.

A nice extra is that it dries really easily, so it is a great one to grow and hang up a string in the kitchen for use year round.

A traditional Chinese pepper, from the collection of Ulla Grall.

12 seed £

Red Basque Chilli

A fantastic heirloom chilli from the south of France that does really well in the UK. We were delighted with this variety when we trialled it - the plants are vigorous, and produce large numbers of good-sized deep red chillies, with a respectable heat to them and a great flavour.

If you enjoy hot chillies, try roasting and stuffing them with a herby goat's cheese mix - tasty but will definitely give you a warm glow!

Originally given to Felicia by her neighbours who grew them on their family farm in the south of France for years and years.

18 seed £

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.

It is easy to grow, and quite hot, too. Mmmm!

Early variety - traditional shape, just really quick. Plants about 2ft tall.

20 seed £

'Padron' pepper

Grown for us by Ian at Llanwern, this small blocky chilli is a fantastic tapas pepper - pick it green and grill or roast it, and serve with a sprinkling of salt as a wonderful nibble. A plate of them is ideal for parties.

The special thing about this one is that when green it is mostly very mild - but it is also the Russian Roulette of chillies, one in ten green fruit on the same plant are crazy hot. There's no knowing which it will be without biting into it . . .

Large prolific bush, turns to red but normally picked when green & under 2 inches long.

18 seed, organic. £

'Palivec' Medium-hot Chilli

This is a new addition from the Czech Republic which has received rave reviews from lots of people, including our friend Ian who runs an organic box scheme and liked them so much he grew a long row of them for his customers. 

We also really like this long 'goats horn' style chilli, which starts out pale green and ripens to a dark red. It is unusually productive, making loads of peppers (even in the useless summer of 2012!) with a good flavour. Plants are about 2ft tall and a foot wide.

Because it isn’t stupidly hot, you can actually cook with it without worrying that you will overdo things, and as the heat is mostly concentrated in the seeds, and you can easily adjust its bite by leaving some of them out (or putting them all in if you prefer!)

18 seed, organic. £

Nigel's Outdoors Chilli

From Nigel Green of Halesworth, Suffolk, this chilli really will tolerate growing outside. We were sceptical, but it does ripen outdoors with no protection even in Wales. The picture is from our back garden- it has ripened properly red despite being swamped by a squash plant.

It makes fat wedge-shaped 2-inch green fruit that later ripen to red if we have a hot summer.  They start mild and ripen to medium hot, and very sweet, making a fantastic chilli chutney, or we like them sliced on top of pizza.

Although it does fruit outdoors, you will of course get far more chillies if you grow it under cover. It is a medium-sized plant about 2ft tall and a foot wide, and can also do well in a container on a sunny patio.

14 seed, organic. £

Yellow Traveller Locoto - NEW

This rare variety of Locoto is enormous! It's the biggest we’ve ever seen, almost the size of a bell pepper, but consequently needs a longer growing season, so not really for beginners.

It was donated by Stewart Holden, who says: “I usually start harvesting in September so not to bad for a Locoto , but they do take a long time to get going as seedlings - I start them in December on my windowsill with no lights etc just sunlight - my window isn't too warm but is south facing.”

Like all locotos, it is a different spceies with furry leaves, purple flowers and black seeds.

Large bushes 3 ft across; big yellow fruit. Very limited stock.

8 seed, organic. £

Alberto's Locoto

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, on large bushes about 2 to 3ft across. 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.

12 seed, organic. £

'Lemon Drop' -LEMON FLAVOURED

This favourite of ours is a very rare pepper: large robust bushes (about 2' tall) covered in thin green chillies that ripen to bright yellow.

The fruit are very, very hot, with a strong lemon flavour. When you cut them they really do smell - and taste - strongly of lemons! It makes a fantastic change to your chilli sauce or salsa.

Its not super early, as the fruits ripen in early autumn - but it is very productive and decorative - and can sometimes do well in a big pot on a sunny patio, or of course it will be very happy in your greenhouse or polytunnel. This is a large bush about two foot square.

Note that this type of pepper - Ají - is only semi-domesticated; some of the seed is always dormant, even with good heat  - but you should get plenty of plants from 16 seed, which is loads as the plants are really quite big and vigorous.

Lemon-flavoured Aji from Peru.

16 seed, organic. £

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.

Chilli peppers will cross with one another, and also with any sweet peppers growing nearby, so either grow just
one variety or plan to isolate plants/flowers if you have several.
See our seedsaving instructions on the website and with your order for more information.