Summer Design with Ornamental Peppers

Colorful peppers look like strings of holiday lights

Did you ever get one of those pliers in your Christmas stocking that’s also a screwdriver, a can opener, and a fork? Ornamental peppers are kind of like that. Their assorted shapes add texture and character to a design as well as color, and sometimes we can even eat them.

Variegated foliage of ‘Calico’

About this time of year our thoughts often turn to peppers to keep the color going through our hot Cincinnati summer. Their fruits stay vibrant in the relentless sun and heat, plus some, like ‘Calico’, even have variegated foliage. We know we can count on these plants to keep the interest going right into the cooler weather of autumn. 

Peppers are versatile

Peppers are versatile: we mix them right in with flowering and foliage plants in combo containers, baskets, and window boxes for bright flashes of red, orange, yellow, or purple. Most grow only a foot and a half tall at the most, so we use them for hits of color at the front of the border, too. 

Bright flashes of color

With their culinary tie-in and tendency to resemble strings of holiday lights we find that ornamental peppers add a spicy, festive element to a design. Keep this in mind when creating displays for restaurant patios and cocktail lounges; spicy peppers are sure to be great conversation starters among trendy craft beer and hot sauce enthusiasts.

Go ahead and file ornamental peppers under multipurpose in the design tool box. This year we have some of our all-time favorites:

‘Basket of Fire’

‘Basket of Fire’—Semi-trailing foliage makes it popular for hanging baskets; peppers mature from deep purple to cream to orange to bright red, and we often get 300 peppers on one plant. These peppers are edible but they’re extremely hot.

‘Chilly Chili’

‘Chilly Chili’—Long, slender greenish-yellow fruit changes to orange, then dark red; these peppers are not hot.

 
‘Sangria’

‘Sangria’—This is the one that looks like Christmas lights; small upright peppers come in shades of bright orange, red, crimson, scarlet, magenta, lilac, and purple—they’re mild in taste.

 
‘Black Pearl’

‘Black Pearl’—Pure glossy black foliage is covered in black fruit that matures to rich, dark red; round peppers taper at the base and are very hot.

 
‘Calico’

‘Calico’—Purple, green, and white variegated foliage is topped with extremely hot purple fruits that mature to red; these peppers have been described as scorching hot so we do not consider them edible.

All of our ornamental peppers are available in the 8-inch pot size. ‘Basket of Fire’ also comes in the 12-inch hanging cone.