Bell and chilli peppers - Madras, celica, apache, topeppo rosso, minimix

One of my little wrinkly peppers from last year, misshapen but perfectly
tasty, I just didn't eat many 

Lets talk peppers.  Actually no lets talk heat.  We British are mocked incessently for talking about the weather.  This is because we talk incessantly about the weather.  And today, today it is hot.  30+ degree kind of hot. Way too hot for me. Im off to Hampton Court flower show on Friday, I have serious concerns all the flowers will have wilted by the time I get there!

Amongst those who I hope are enjoying basking in these glorious rays are my peppers.  Yes, my vegetable buying did not stop at just tomatoes.

I had two pepper plants last year, both shop bought as my efforts to grow from seed fell flat.  And they produced peppers, which is obviously good.  However these peppers never turned red and they were funny little gnarled things so I often left them to shrivel in the bottom of the fridge, which is bad.  This year I am determined to actively use my crop, as there should be a considerable one.  A dislike for the produce has not stopped me investing in a solid stock.

I didn't have a bad crop, but these little green peppers never went red, which is annoying

The first pepper that caught my attention was Madras.  I have totally been sucked in by the colour.  This bell pepper purports to be very very dark purple, which is cool.  However, like all normal peppers it should turn red as it ripens.  Only none of mine did last year so actually I might get to eat black peppers.  I don't believe there is anything else that exciting about this, there is only so exciting a pepper can be after all.

The second variety I picked out is sweet pepper Celica.  Looking it up on the internet I have read that it is "a vast improvement for plant and fruit quality compared to the popular Bell Boy," which is great, because Bell boy is one of the varieties that I neglected to properly use last year.

The last plant I purchased is seriously different for me.  I bought a chilli pepper, an apache.  I have never grown one before.  Its a slightly unusual purchase because for one, I don't really like chilli peppers, and two I have no idea what I am going to do with them when I have got some.  But I thought it would be fun, and I have so many pots to water now one more is hardly gong to make much of a difference.

I have more peppers, but these I grew myself.  I think the fact that I bought peppers hints at the level of faith I had in my ability to keep pepper seedlings from the slugs.  Turns out the garage is a fairly slug-less place, although I did find cheeky beggar in there which was swiftly removed.

My little seed grown peppers, they are only small at the moment but I have high hopes for these little plants 

I have two varieties, topeppo rosso, which is one of those that has lovely squished fruits that look very Italian.  I have noticed that the packet says "thick fleshed" which im not sure if is good or not.  I have two of these.  I have four sweet minimix, which are thumb-sized, tiny, red yellow and orange peppers.  Hopefully both of these will be a worthwhile addition to the crop because I have yet to pot these up.

I will keep you all posted with the pepper progress.  I only did one post on peppers last year, and for months it was my best read post, so apparently people can't get enough of peppers, and who am I not to oblige.