Peppers are annuals. Everybody knows that right? The funny thing is, we’ve all been taught that by our seed catalogs and gardening magazines, but it isn’t really true. A number of times, Joe and I have kept pet pepper plants—or tomatoes or eggplants—over winter.
This year we kept a Trinidad Spice pepper. Trini Spice is a mild version of the ferocious Habanero pepper. It just looked too good in the fall to allow the coming frosts to kill it! So we dug it up, we put it in a big pot, and all winter long we tended to its every need.
Coming toward the spring its furthest out leaves have begun yellowing, but the newer leaves are coming in full green and fruits have begun to form! Can’t wait to get it in the ground!
Another pleasant surprise this winter has been the Serrano pepper that has sprung up in one of our Curry Tree pots.
And it’s flowering!
The whole nightshade family can be kept inside, to good advantage, over winter because in the tropics—from which they hail—they are actually perennials. So, this fall, go ahead and bring in a plant or two. But be forewarned, they beg for gobs of attention and need as much sunlight as you can get them! I guess they’re kind of like children or pets that way. So if you treat them right, they will give back to you in the end!
Groundwell Farm 