Plant Care Library

Group/Class:  Ornamental

Description:

A beautiful and unique feature in any garden, hanging basket or patio container; small purple fruit, ripening to red, decorate stunning variegated green, purple and cream foliage; medium hot fruit are perfect for pickled peppers

Edible Qualities

Tricolor Variegata Hot Pepper is an annual vegetable plant that is commonly grown for its edible qualities, although it does have ornamental merits as well. It produces small purple pointy peppers (which are technically 'berries') which are typically harvested when mature. The fruit will often fade to red over time. The peppers have a hot taste and a crunchy texture.

The peppers are most often used in the following ways:

• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Pickling

Planting & Growing

Tricolor Variegata Hot Pepper will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 22 inches. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 24 inches apart. This vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant is quite ornamental as well as edible, and is as much at home in a landscape or flower garden as it is in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Tricolor Variegata Hot Pepper is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.