than just eye candy. They’re also packed full of spice. While they aren’t the most pleasant or flavorful peppers, they provide a punch in any dish. So consider growing ornamental pepper plants this spring!

Once you plant ornamental peppers, you can practically ignore them and they will thrive. Growing ornamental peppers, therefore, is an easy and rewarding experience. While you focus on the higher maintenance plants in your vegetable garden, your ornamental peppers pop with color.

Whether it’s hot pepper flakes you’d like to include in a dish, or simply a splash of color with some heat, the colorful fruit of an ornamental pepper plant provides. If eating the fruit of the pepper plants isn’t your style, know they’re great in pest deterrent sprays and landscapes.

So, let’s discuss growing ornamental peppers, and cover a few different types you can seek out for your spring planting.
What are Ornamental Peppers?
The ornamental pepper plant (Capsicum annuum) has many different varieties and, thus, multiple common names. Ornamental pepper plants are tender perennials often grown as annuals.

Native Area

Most ornamental peppers originate in southern North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Ornamental peppers made their way to Europe in the 15th century and were prized as showy, colorful garden plants. Today, they’re known as Christmas plants due to their bright fruit that makes them an excellent addition to floral arrangements and as a bedding plant in ornate landscapes. They’re also great container plants. Whether you want to eat them or not, they’re sure to be a hit.

Characteristics
The ornamental pepper is a dense, round shrub with alternate, ovate dark purple to deep green leaves. It’s a bushier plant with green branches that reach anywhere from six inches to three feet tall and spread eight to twenty-four inches wide. The compact plants bloom inconspicuous off-white flowers – sometimes with a purple tint – that require pollination either by hand or from bumblebees.

The flowers bloom in the late spring, and with successful pollination, peppers form within four months. They resemble Christmas lights in an upright position. Pepper colors range from bright red, yellow, orange, green, or deep purple. The root ball of ornamental pepper is small and shallow. As the weather cools in early fall, ornamental peppers stop producing, and they die back in frost. Those not exposed to frost will survive throughout the year.

Most people grow ornamental peppers for non-culinary reasons, but they work very well in bean dishes, salsas, and hot sauces. Anywhere you need an extra kick, these peppers deliver. Some people are unpleasantly surprised when they take a pepper off the ornamental plants and take a bite. That’s because there’s more punch than flavor involved when you eat ornamental peppers.
Varieties
‘Chilly Chili’ peppers
‘Chilly Chili’ peppers grow on a dense plant with green leaves that reach one foot tall and spread six to ten inches wide. The plant produces upright, slender red, orange, and yellow fruit that, at their hottest, have the same amount of spice as a poblano. This chili plant grows well in prepared ground or containers.

‘Prairie Fire’ peppers
‘Prairie Fire’ pepper plants are great for hanging baskets, containers, or the ground due to their low-lying nature. They’ll fit into almost any landscape at a height of eight inches and a spread of one foot. The densely arranged dark green leaves are punctuated by stout red, yellow, orange, purple, and cream-colored peppers. If you want to use them in the kitchen, know they are just as spicy as Thai peppers and ten times the heat of jalapenos.

‘Bolivian Rainbow’ peppers
‘Bolivian Rainbow’ peppers are just as lovely as the name suggests. They’re taller than the previous ornamental peppers we’ve mentioned, which are two feet tall. The slender leaves are accented by Christmas light-shaped peppers that are purple, bright red, orange, and yellow. These have a cayenne-level heat.

‘Black Pearl’ peppers
‘Black Pearl’ peppers grow on a plant with dark green leaves that is 18 inches wide and tall. The fruit is the origin of the common name for this pepper plant, as it turns from a bright red to a deep, almost black purple. Black pearl peppers also pack cayenne-level heat and add a touch of spicy darkness to a garden or a dish.

‘Medusa’ peppers
‘Medusa’ ornamental peppers are very small and make excellent bedding plants or container plantings. They reach a mere six to eight inches tall, and have peppers that are ivory white when they first form, then deepen to a yellow, orange, and finally bright red. These peppers are great for children’s gardens because they don’t pack nearly the same punch as the others we’ve mentioned.

‘Numex Easter’ peppers
‘Numex Easter’ peppers are lovely and produce fruits that cluster together in fours. Pepper colors range from white to pale yellow, light purple, orange, and red. The leaves are dark green and sit atop stems that reach eight inches high and spread ten inches wide. They’re lovely in hanging baskets and container plantings and pack a pretty hefty heat.

‘Sangria’ peppers
‘Sangria’ peppers are lovely vibrant specimens that grow red peppers that turn reddish-purple late in the season. The ‘Sangria’ plant type grows peppers bred for their intensely colored fruit, and their hues pop out among the deep green foliage. The height and spread of these plants are 16 and 18 inches, respectively. ‘Sangria’ plants have hot peppers that are about the same heat as cayenne. And Sangria is great indoors, outdoors, in the ground, or in containers.

Planting
To grow ornamental peppers, plant seeds in well-drained soil enriched with organic matter. They prefer warmer temperatures and a sunny location. Regular watering is crucial, but avoid overwatering to prevent root rot. Once established, the plants are relatively drought-tolerant.