Great New Peppers for Home Gardens

Peppers are popular in home gardens because given the right conditions - fertile soil, a sunny location, warm daytime temperatures and ample water - they're easy to grow and aren't bothered much by insect pests. Moreover, the compact plants take up very little space in the garden yet produce a bountiful harvest of delicious peppers.

There are peppers for every palate, from mild sweet peppers, to hot peppers with just a hint of heat, to the blistering hot peppers at the top of the Scoville heat scale that can make grown men cry. Sweet peppers are commonly called bell peppers, and come in a rainbow of colors including green, red, yellow, orange and purple. While there are hundreds of varieties of hot peppers, the selection of seedlings in garden centers is usually quite limited so it's best to grow hot peppers from seed.

Here are some new peppers you might want to try growing in your own home garden this year.

'Pinot Noir Hybrid' Sweet Pepper is a Burpee exclusive that produces large blocky fruits with a crisp and refreshingly sweet flavor. The thick-walled peppers start out light green when young and ripen to shades of orange, purple and cherry red for an attractive bouquet. (70 days).

'Flexum Hybrid' Sweet Pepper from the Tomato Growers Supply Companyis a cone-shaped pepper that grows to about 6" long. Though this new pepper has an odd name that's not very appealing, it's worth growing for its cute shape, very sweet taste and abundant yield. The thick-walled peppers start out ivory and mature from yellow to orange to red. (65 days).

'Ristra Cayenne Hybrid' Hot Pepper from Burpee yields an impressively large crop of peppers in the classic cayenne shape (long and skinny) that start off a lovely lime green before ripening to crimson red. The exceptionally thin-walled peppers are perfect for use in chili, salsa and stir fries. (70 days).

'Chichimeca Hybrid' Hot Pepper is a colossal jalapeno that grows to 4" long and 2" wide. This new pepper is slightly milder than standard jalapeno peppers (3,500 Scoville units instead of 5,000) making them a good choice for those who like peppers with a little heat but not too much. The strong, virus-resistant plants produce an impressively large yield of very tasty peppers. (65 days).

'Hottie Hybrid' Hot Pepper is a large habanero variety with excellent production of 2"-long peppers that turn orange when fully ripe. Habaneros are one of the hottest peppers available; however, the Hottie Hybrid has a little less heat than others of this variety, which makes them a bit more user-friendly to many home gardeners and cooks. (80 days).

Super sweet or blazing hot, long and skinny or short and stocky, peppers are a great addition to any home garden. I hope this list will inspire you to try at least one of these great new peppers this year.

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Tomato Growers Supply Company

Burpee.com