Peppers

Banana Hot Pepper

If you like a hint of heat with your peppers, give hot banana pepper a try. The 6-inch-long, banana-shaped fruit provides a bit of a kick—without frightening less-adventurous eaters. Pickled, fried, or roasted, it adds terrific flavor to your favorite dishes. Plus, the fruit creates a pretty pop of color in the garden and on the plate, maturing from pale green to yellow to orange to red. You’ll appreciate its resilience in summer, too, as the plant produces well even in hot weather. Performs well in containers. Hybrid. Add a cage or stake to your pepper when planting to support stems heavy with fruit. Place in full sun, and feed regularly. Be sure to label plants if you’re also growing sweet banana peppers. Scoville heat units: 5,000 to 10,000. Matures in 75 days.

Banana Sweet Pepper

Named for its banana-like shape, this variety bears sweet, mild banana peppers that mature from yellow, to orange, and then to crimson red. Plants fruit prolifically, easily producing up to 25 to 30 pods per plant. Banana peppers are great for frying and pickling, and are an excellent choice for making pepper rings for sandwiches. Great for containers. Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Cayenne Pepper

Light: Full sun. Fruit size: 5 to 6 inches. Matures: 70 to 75 days. Plant spacing: 12 to 18 inches apart. Plant size: 18 to 24 inches tall. Scoville heat units: 30,000 to 50,000 (hot). This very hot pepper is the prime ingredient in Cayenne pepper, which is made when the dried peppers are ground into powder. This is also the favored spice of Creole and Cajun cuisine used to give gumbo and crayfish dishes their punch. Thin-walled, skinny, wrinkled fruits are 5 to 6 Inches long and very hot. However, they will not be hot when small. Wait until they get at least 5 or 6 Inches long to pick hot ones. They can be substituted for most dishes calling for Serrano, Jalapeno, or Habanero peppers. Easy to grow and tolerant of hot, humid weather, Cayenne will produce peppers all summer. These skinny peppers are also called chili or finger peppers. Great for containers. Some Bonnie Plants varieties may not be available at your local stores, as we select and sell varieties best suited to the growing conditions in each region.

Coolapeño Heatless Jalapeño Pepper

Hybrid. If you love nachos and poppers but aren’t quite so fond of the heat of traditional jalapeños, Coolapeño Heatless Jalapeño is for you! These peppers have all the delicious jalapeño flavor without the spiciness. Use them to make yummy salsa — as well as those poppers and nachos — for sensitive palates. Peppers ripen green to red, becoming sweeter as they ripen.

Poblano (Ancho) Pepper

Mexico's favorite chile pepper! When traditionally ripened to red and dried, this pepper is known as an 'Ancho'; it is also used green, as a 'Poblano', for making chiles rellenos. The thick-walled, mildly hot fruit have a rich, mellow flavor. The name Poblano comes from the valley of Puebla, south of Mexico City, where the peppers were first cultivated. This pepper produces continuously through the summer in climates with warm days and cool nights. This is a big plant, so give it the space it needs when planting: Set it at least 3 to 4 feet from other plants.Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Red Bell Pepper

Sweet, juicy, nutritious red fruits add appetizing color to fresh salads and are superb for stuffing. Also great on the grill! The big, blocky peppers (they average around 4 to 6 Ounces) ripen from dark green to bright red. High-yielding plants are well adapted throughout the US. Grow your own and avoid premium prices at the grocery store. Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Red Ghost Super Hot Pepper

You’ve probably heard of the ghost pepper, as it has made its name as one of the hottest peppers in the world. Fruits ripen from green to bright red, and have thin, wrinkled skins. This is a slow growing plant, but it can sometimes reach up to 4 feet tall. Handle these fiery chili peppers with caution: Wear gloves and long sleeves when harvesting, and don’t let cut peppers—or anything made with them—touch your skin. (Goggles are a good idea, too.) Remember, a very little goes an extremely long way with this pepper. Some Bonnie Plants varieties may not be available at your local stores, as we select and sell varieties best suited to the growing conditions in each region.

Jalapeno Hot Pepper

Named for the town of Jalapa, Mexico, this is the most popular chile pepper in the United States. Jalapeño produces 3-inch, thick-walled, moderately hot pods with deep green color that matures to a bright red. The skin may show a netting pattern as fruit ages, but it does not affect flavor. Often, the heat of the peppers will vary, even those from the same plant. If peppers grow fast, get plenty of water, and are harvested soon, they may be milder than peppers that stay on the plant a long time, or that develop slowly and under stressful conditions. Widely adapted, jalapeño plants yield a bountiful harvest in dry or humid, hot or cool climates. The compact plants grow well in containers. Use jalapeño on nachos or in salsa, or smoke the mature red ones over mesquite chips to make your own chipotle sauce. Jalapeño became the first pepper in space when a bag full of pods accompanied astronauts on the shuttle Columbia in November 1982! Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Shishito Pepper

Grow the pepper that’s long been prized by restaurants and is a favorite among chefs. Shishito is a Japanese sweet pepper that produces handfuls of finger-long fruits. Usually used when green (though also fine to eat when red), the peppers are thin-walled, making them ideal for tempura and stir fries. On this side of the Pacific, it’s wildly popular as an appetizer—tossed with oil, then char-grilled or pan-seared to a blackened, blistered state and salted. Plants are compact and perfect for containers. Use one plant per 18-inch pot.

Yellow Bell Pepper

Yellow, thick-walled, sweet fruits add appetizing color and vitamins to fresh salads, and are superb for stuffing as well as fresh use. Plants can get quite large, so be prepared to support them, especially when carrying lots of fruit. Ripens green to yellow.

Serrano Pepper

This variety is a vigorous bearer of hot, pungent, candle-shaped fruits that mature from green to bright red. Plants do well in most climates and are especially well adapted to hot, humid areas. This pepper is growing in popularity for pickling and salsa, and is the pepper of choice for making pico de gallo.Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Sweet Green Bell Pepper

Bonnie's best hybrid sweet bell pepper! A heavy yielder of large fruits. A good all-round pepper for slicing, stuffing, and freezing. This bell produces lots of fresh bell peppers gradually over the growing season. Plants in our Alabama garden produce from June through October, yielding 30 or more peppers from each plant. (Your results will vary based on care and the length of your growing season.) This is a good-sized plant, so be prepared to stake if needed. Organic varieties are only available at retailers.

Anaheim Hot Pepper

Also called a New Mexico or California chile, this is a green, chile-type, mildly hot pepper that ripens to a pretty deep red. The thick-walled fruit is the classic pepper used for chiles rellenos, soups, and stews. Rich, mellow flavor. Plants are disease resistant. Plants bear continously through summer where nighttime temperatures aren't higher than 90 degrees. This is also the variety that has been most widely grown and dried to make ristras, or string of dried Chile peppers, that are a New Mexico tradition. Originating as a practical way for farmers to cure peppers to keep a long time, the pretty strings of dozens of dried red peppers have taken on ornamental value as well.

Apocalypse Red Pepper

Are you ready to taste the heat of 1,000 suns? That’s how pepper connoisseurs describe Apocalypse Red Hot Pepper. Developed by growers in Italy, this fiery beauty adds a whole lot of heat to your favorite recipes. Considered one of the world’s hottest peppers, it’s not for timid palates! The plant produces abundant red fruit with the signature scorpion stinger. The fruity flavor tastes terrific used fresh in recipes—if you can handle it!—or add just a bit to sauces or meat dishes for a serious spark of flavor. The plant reaches approximately 4 feet tall and grows beautifully in garden beds or containers. Adding a cage to your pepper plant helps support stems when heavy with fruit. Hybrid. Place in full sun and feed regularly. Scoville heat units: 1,463,700. Wear gloves and protect eTrue when handling fruit. Matures in 90 to 120 days.

Bonnie® Plants Bell Pepper Combo, Red & Green (2-pack)

Cajun Belle Pepper

True to its name, Cajun Belle pepper is an awesome pepper because it gives you all the flavor of a sweet pepper combined with a mild but spicy heat that adds zip to any dish. This 2010 All America winner is just plain cute, too. We love the way the little peppers ripen from lime green to orange to red. You can eat them at any stage, but the longer they stay on the plant, the warmer they get. Plants are robust and disease tolerant yet relatively small, growing about 2 feet tall by 2 feet wide. They're ideal for small gardens or containers. Each fruit is 2 to 3 Inches Long, with 3 to 4 lobes to make a small, thin walled blocky miniature pepper. Allowed to remain on the plant to maturity, they turn glossy red and grow increasingly flavorful. Plants in our Alabama test garden (where the long harvest season lasts from May through October) easily yield more than 150 peppers each. Of course, yield in your garden will depend on care and the length of your warm growing season.

Chile de Arbol Hot Pepper

Chili de Arbol blends fiery heat with smoky flavors that really enhance Mexican cooking. Tall plants (up to 4 feet) bear heavy loads of slender, curved peppers all summer long. This heirloom pepper hails from Chihuahua, Mexico, and is the pepper seen most often in dried pepper strings (ristras) or wreaths because fruits retain their bright red color after drying. Only available in the following state, in limited quantity: CA

Cowhorn Hot Pepper

These large, thick-walled cayenne peppers are named for their shape. The fruit turns bright red when mature and are quite hot. The wrinkled fruit are excellent for sauces and drying.

Cubanelle Pepper

This yellow-green to red tapered fruit is prized for a sweet, mild flesh that is growing in popularity because of its rich flavor and pretty colors for frying and cooking. The thin-walled pepper is especially suited for quick cooking. Popular in dishes of Spanish, Italian, and Slavic descent, many cooks prefer it to bell types. In the garden, Cubanelle peppers are unique, often growing in imperfect shapes and changing color from green/yellow to shades of orange to red. Don't be surprised if the some of the peppers curl and twist a bit. No two seem to ever be alike — it's part of of their charm.

Giant Marconi Pepper

Awarded All-America Selections recognition in 2001 for its adaptability, earliness, smoky-sweet flavor, and yield, this pepper is a sure winner in the garden. It is one of the biggest Italian- type sweet peppers, with a long profile and a slightly lobed end. Peppers ripen from green to red and are sweetest when red. They are great in all kinds of cooked dishes, especially grilled or roasted for sandwiches or alone. Plants grow about 2.5 feet tall and are resistant to tobacco mosaic virus and potato Y virus. Keep peppers picked and they will continue producing until frost.

Habanero Hot Pepper

One of the most potent hot peppers- 100 times hotter than Jalapeño! Great for hot sauces and basting. Wrinkled, tapered little fruit turn from green to orange. Bear very well in hot weather. Grows well in containers. Tapered little fruit turn from green to orange. Bear very well in hot weather.

Havasu Hot Pepper

Give your garden a little sizzle with Havasu hot pepper. This is a Santa Fe-type pepper, a favorite in the Southwest. Fruits are thick-walled and cone shaped. They’re a good choice for stuffing, frying, or pickling, or use them to create a spicy version of chile rellenos. Havasu peppers are typically harvested when yellow, but also tasty when ripened to red.

Habanero Primero Red Hot Pepper

If you love the flavor of habaneros but can’t take the extreme heat, this is the pepper for you. Habanero Primero Red hot pepper tastes like traditional habanero peppers but with only about one-third of the heat. One of the earliest ripening habaneros available, you’ll enjoy huge yields of fruit as early as 60 days after planting. The 3-inch fruit is larger than standard habaneros, but the plant is compact, reaching just 18 to 24 inches tall. This pepper grows beautifully in garden beds or containers. Adding a cage to your pepper plant helps support stems when heavy with fruit. Place in full sun and feed regularly. Scoville heat units: 70,000. Wear gloves when handling fruit. Hybrid. Matures in 60 to 65 days (green), 75 to 80 days (red).

Big Bertha Bell Pepper

The largest elongated bell pepper available! Thick-walled, 7-inch long fruit ripen to red. Plants are disease resistant. Ideal for giant stuffed peppers. Big Bertha plants in our Alabama test garden produce 7 to 12 pounds of peppers each over a harvest season that runs from May through October. Obviously, your results will depend on care and the length of the warm season in your locale. This is a big plant, so use a tomato cage or stakes to support because when the stems get heavy with big fruit, they can break in wind or rain.

Bonnie® Plants Bell Pepper Combo, Yellow & Green (2-pack)

Mammoth Jalapeño Hot Pepper

A giant jalapeño, this one will make whopper poppers. Peppers have a smooth skin and thick flesh, which makes them easier to stuff. Or, use them in salsa, dips, or other recipes as you would normal-sized jalapeños. Plants are resistant to tobacco mosaic virus and potato virus Y.

Mimi Red Pepper

Good things come in small packages—like the big, sweet flavor of Mimi Red peppers on a foot-tall plant! The fleshy fruit is delicious fresh or added to your favorite recipes. But these pretty peppers don’t just taste great—they also add a bright pop of color to indoor décor. A petite plant that’s perfect for a sunny kitchen counter, balcony, or well-lit tabletop.

Mexibell Pepper

This unique hybrid pepper combines the characteristics of bell and hot peppers to produce a bell with a kick. Mexibell bears large, flat, wide, bell-shaped peppers that mature from green to red. Remove the seed core and ribs for milder taste. An All America winner, it grows well throughout the country. It will not cause nearby bell peppers to produce hot fruits, but could cross-pollinate with them and produce seeds that would affect next year's crop if you save seed.

Carolina Reaper Pepper

Demand for the Carolina Reaper plant has been as smokin' hot as the pepper itself! Do you dare to grow the world’s hottest pepper? Get your milk-chaser ready, because Carolina Reaper packs a punch! With an off-the-chart Scoville rating of 1,569,300, these devilish red fruits aren’t for wimps. Easy to grow, the infamous pepper possesses a fruity and sweet aroma, with an undertone of chocolate and cherry flavors. It may be hot, but it’s packed with flavor, too. A little goes a long way—use part of a pod to flavor an entire pot of chili, or dehydrate and grind the peppers to make ultra-hot pepper powder. Just be sure to wear gloves when handling and add a mask when processing.

New Mexico 6-4L Pepper

Heirloom. This sturdy New Mexican pepper produces long, smooth, pendant fruits with a mildly hot flavor. This is the most popular chile commercially grown in New Mexico for drying (poblano peppers) and other uses; in New Mexico chile peppers are a food, not a spice. It is adaptable to other warm regions but loves the hot days and cool nights of the Southwest. Plants are vigorous and compact with heavy foliage to prevent sunscald. Pods ripen from green to red. Only available in the following states, in limited quantities: AZ, NM

Orange Bell Pepper

A very sweet hybrid, this beauty ripens from green to a beautiful deep, tangerine orange. Big blocky fruits with thick walls are a great source of antioxidants! The sweetest of the colored peppers. Try it in salsa, salads, or cooking. Plants are resistant to tobacco mosaic virus.

Fresno Chili Hot Pepper

Heirloom. Fresno chili is a jalapeño-style chili, but hotter than most jalapeños. High yields of medium-sized fruit are borne on short, upright plants. The peppers ripen from green to red. Excellent for picking, canning, sauces, and salsas. Vigorous 24 to 30 inch tall plants have dense, dark green foliage and are resistant to tobacco mosaic virus. A good pickler, the fruit is also ready to eat at a mature green stage, even before it turns red.

Pequin Chili Pepper

A beautiful plant! The tiny fruits turn brilliant red when ripe, but don’t let their beauty fool you: These peppers pack a serious punch. Plants produce a huge harvest of extremely hot peppers with smoky flavor. (The longer they stay on the plant, the hotter they get.) Use them in soups, vinegars, oils, hot sauces, and salsas. Great for drying. Excellent for container growing.

Gypsy Pepper

This elongated, 3-lobed beauty performs well in hot and cool regions. Great for frying or in salads. Ripens from light greenish yellow to orange to red. A sweet pepper similar to Romanian Sweet. Resistant to tobacco mosaic virus.

Purple Bell Sweet Pepper

These purple peppers are guaranteed to spark conversation in the garden and on a dinner plate. Colored a rich, deep purple, they have terrific sweet bell flavor to go with their good looks. Peppers start green, shift to white, and then develop purple stripes that eventually cover the whole fruit. The purple skin contrasts beautifully with lime green flesh. It'™s a stunning combination that really dresses up fresh veggie trays, sandwiches, salads, and other dishes.This pepper tolerates high heat and humidity and thrives in Southern gardens. Plants grow 18 to 24 inches tall and bear fruit until frost. Space plants 20 to 24 inches apart. Merlot is resistant to tobacco mosaic virus and bacterial leaf spot races 1, 2, and 3.

Sandia Hot Pepper

Heirloom. Grow Sandia when you want a pepper that offers mild heat and versatility in use. This chile-style pepper has medium-thick walls that add a nice crunch to salsa. A favorite for roasting, the peppers are also often dried to create decorative strings, or ristras. Introduced by New Mexico State University in 1956, Sandia plants bear heavy yields of green peppers that ripen to red. Heat increases as fruits redden. Harvest up to an average of 20 fruits per plant. Sandia is sometimes labeled as NuMex Sandia. Only available in the following states, in limited quantities: AZ, CA, NM

Snacking Red Pepper

Talk about goodness from the garden! These deliciously sweet, snack-size red peppers taste so good right off the plant that they might never see the inside of your kitchen. Kids love them for snacks and lunches, and they also taste great in salads and stir-fries. Fruits tend to be slightly smaller than Lunchbox Orange. Great for containers; plant each one in an 18-inch pot. Stake mature plants or surround with a small tomato cage to provide support.

Orange Butch T Hot Pepper

If you like your peppers insanely hot, this one’s for you. Orange Butch T creates a culinary solar flare—so beware! Originating from the 2011 to 2013 Guinness World Record-holder red Butch T hot pepper, Orange Butch T produces the same mega-heat and fruity flavor but in a pretty orange package. The fruit’s scorpion-like stinger provides fair warning: This pepper has an element of danger. Extreme eaters love it for the sweet flavor that’s quickly replaced by a fiery burn. Be careful eating it fresh—it’s best used to flavor hot sauces, chili jams, and Caribbean dishes. The plant reaches 36 inches tall and grows beautifully in garden beds or containers. Adding a cage to your pepper plant helps support stems when heavy with fruit. Hybrid. Place in full sun and feed regularly. Scoville heat units: 800,000 to 1,463,700. Wear gloves and protect eTrue when handling fruit. Matures in 90 to 120 days.

New Mexico Big Jim Pepper

Introduced in 1975 by New Mexico State University, this cross between a Peruvian chile and various types from New Mexico produces high yields of bright green, mildly hot fruit that mature to red. It is popular because of the very long, tasty, 10- to 12-inch pods. An obvious choice for chiles rellenos, Big Jim may vary some in pungency from plant to plant.

Tabasco Hot Pepper

Heirloom. This hot pepper is used to make the famous Tabasco® Sauce. Peppers mature from yellow-green to orange to red and have a unique, smoky flavor that contributes to Tabasco's distinctive taste. While adapted to all areas of the US, plants produce continuously and will therefore produce the most peppers in the South and Southwest, where the growing season is longest. In frost-free areas, plants can live for several years. Easy to grow, the compact Tabasco is also a good choice for containers.

Thai Hot Ornamental Pepper

This plant produces large numbers of 1-inch green fruits that mature to blazing red color with heat and flavor to match! These are extremely hot. This variety grows well in hot, humid regions. Plants are compact, about a foot tall, and perfect for containers. Great ornamental value. The colorful peppers last a long time on the plant.

Tepin Chili Pepper

These round, shiny peppers may be tiny, but they pack a lot of heat. Fruits gradually mature from green to red, getting hotter as they turn. Peppers are both edible and ornamental, and look beautiful in containers, gardens, and landscape plantings. This variety is often called the “bird pepper” because birds love to snack on the fruit (they don’t feel the heat like humans do). The most common use for Tepin peppers is to dry and crush them to season soups and stews – just be sure to handle with care.

Yellow Scotch Bonnet Hot Pepper

Create a Caribbean vibe in your kitchen! Yellow Scotch Bonnet Hot Pepper hails from Jamaica, land of reggae and beautiful beaches, and now you can grow your own secret ingredient to create delicious Caribbean-inspired jerk chicken for a Jamaican-themed staycation. A cousin of the habanero, this pepper has a distinctive sweet-heat flavor and thick walls, making it perfect for the long cooking times needed to create jerks and curries. The fruit’s name originates from its shape, which looks like a Scotsman’s bonnet. The plant reaches 24 to 36 inches tall and grows beautifully in garden beds or containers. Adding a cage to your pepper plant helps support stems when heavy with fruit. Hybrid. Place in full sun and feed regularly. Scoville heat units: 100,000 to 350,000. Wear gloves when handling fruit. Matures in 80 to 90 days.

Santa Fe Grande Hot Pepper

A pretty chile, Santa Fe Grande pepper (also known as Guero) matures from yellow to orange-red with mild heat and slight sweetness. It works well either cooked or fresh for salads, salsas, and other dishes based on chile peppers. Plants grow about 2 feet tall and are resistant to tobacco mosaic virus.

Tastybite Amber Pepper (2-PACK)

If you love the sweet flavor and crunchy texture of sweet peppers, you’ll adore Tastybite Amber. This pretty, conical-shaped yellow pepper not only tastes delicious, but it also adds a bit of brightness to garden beds and containers with its sunny-colored fruit. The 6-inch fruit is perfect for a meal of stuffed peppers. Slice it to cook in your favorite fajitas recipe or dice it to eat fresh in salads. You’ll appreciate the versatility of this delicious sweet pepper! Best of all, these peppers mature early, so you can enjoy them all summer. Adding a cage to your pepper plant helps support stems when heavy with fruit.