If you are a pepper lover, today’s 5 perfect pepper plants article is right up your alley!
We are never at a loss for planting peppers on our little farm. In fact, most years, we grow 20 varieties or more. Not just in our garden, but all over the farm – in flowerbeds, pots, containers, hanging baskets, and anywhere else we can!
But for us, the 5 we are highlighting today are the best of the best. Not only for the big flavor and yields they produce, but because they also happen to cover every culinary need you could need from a pepper.
From fresh eating to appetizers, to stuffing for a main dish or making homemade pepper flakes and powders – these 5 perfect peppers have you covered!
5 Perfect Peppers To Grow In Your Garden This Year
Anaheim Pepper
The Anaheim is the multi-purpose All-Star of peppers. It is the ultimate chili pepper, with a flavor that has just a hint of heat for the taste buds. It can be used green or red, and is also a wonderful for making dried chilies.
In fact, the Anaheim is identical to the very famous Hatch chili that is grown in Hatch, New Mexico. The only difference, to be a Hatch chili pepper you have to be grown in the soils of Hatch, New Mexico
Perhaps we should start calling it our Nashport, Ohio Chili pepper as well! No matter where you grow them, they are certainly a perfect pepper plant indeed.
We love Anaheims in everything from our homemade chili, to our un-stuffed pepper soup. Seed Link Aneheim Pepper Seeds
Italian Roaster / Marconi – Sweet Pepper
Hands down our absolute favorite pepper we grow for grilling and stuffing! The Italian Roaster / Marconi pepper is so good and productive, we even dedicated an entire article about it last year! See : The Best Sweet Red Pepper Plant Ever
Pick early when green, and they are a delicious mild green bell-style pepper. Let them mature to bright red, and you have the most delicious pepper with sweet, juicy flavor.
The size of the peppers are almost unbelievable. The plant produces 8″ to 12″ long, thick-walled peppers all season long. Some garden and seed catalogs call them Italian Roasters, others call them Sweet Red Marconi. Just look for the giant red sweet pepper!
Shishito Peppers
Another rock star pepper that is taking the country by storm. The Shishito pepper plant produces massive amounts of delicious peppers that make the perfect, healthy appetizer. See : Shishito Appetizers Recipe
You can now find them on appetizer menus all around the country. It quickly became one of our favorites as well last year. The plants grow a heavy load of 2″ to 4″ long peppers that are nearly all sweet. But the fun is that every once in awhile, you get a hot one!
They can be turned into an amazing appetizer by grilling with just a bit of olive oil to coat. The plants keep on producing right up until the first frost. Seed Link : Shishito Seeds
LunchBox Sweet Snacking Peppers
Snacking peppers have soared in popularity over the last several years. The crunch, the sweet taste, and the tiny seed core make them a perfect healthy snack.
They are also perfect peppers for putting in salads, salsa and more. We have tried several different types over the years, but always come back to the Lunchbox variety.
For us, they simply grow and produce more peppers per plant than any other variety we have tried. We also like the slightly larger 2 to 3″ size compared to many that can’t quite measure up. Seed Link : LunchBox Pepper Seeds
Chinese 5 Color
I don’t think we could ever do an article about perfect pepper plants without talking about the Chinese Five Color Pepper. It truly is a magnificent hot pepper that has so many uses in both our landscape, and the kitchen!
The Chinese Five Color is an edible ornamental pepper with tremendous flavor. Yes, it is spicy and hot – but the flavor comes through like no other hot pepper can.
And the heat doesn’t linger on the taste buds like many hot peppers that simply burn. It is perfect for fresh eating, and for heating up salsas and chili soup.
But where it absolutely excels is when it is dried into flakes or a hot pepper powder. Quite simply it has replaced the need for us to ever grow or make cayenne pepper again. It has triple the flavor, and adds so much more depth to any dish.
All of our kids now routinely request us to make more powder for them – and some don’t even like spicy foods! Seed Link ; 5 Color Chinese
But even more, this pepper plant is stunning when planted in the landscape. We plant it in our flowerbeds and pots to give a color explosion like no other.
There you have it, our five perfect pepper plants to grow for big flavor, and beauty! Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary.
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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