King Arthur, Red Knight, and Karma

I like Orange Bell for an heirloom, or Chocolate Belle if you want to try a hybrid.

You might also try a pimento/cheese pepper... very similar to bells--thick walls, similar uses, similar but (I think) sweeter taste--just a little smaller and squatter, like a miniature pumpkin. Red Ruffled Pimento is one of my favorites =)

I got Bell girl one year because I couldn't find my regular variety and I've stayed with them since. They're large, blocky, thick walled and suitable for stuffing or freezing. Sweet and mature into nice red doozies.

'Ace' is "suppossed" to be bred for Northern gardens. Not sure how that applies to NC, as you are in the middle range.
'Karma' is suppossed to be newer type that yields well, according to tests.
'Orion' is suppossed to be another newer bred green to red that is above average, claims to have lots of leaf cover for hotter areas.
Don't know what you would find.

I've never seen that much difference in my random growings, except that 'Golden Summer' always does well in Ohio... big hefty plants, many big lime-green to golden- orange thick blocky peppers.

I'm trying ACE for the first time this year. So far, it's been great. I started them from seed and they are still in pots waiting for warmer weather to go in the ground. It was the first one to bloom, about a couple of weeks before others. Right now I have a couple of plants with 2" baby peppers on them, and the plants are covered in blooms. I think it's a keeper.

There are really no "green" peppers. They all turn some other color when mature, or "ripe". As far as I can tell, they all eventually turn red.

Some go from green to red, yellow, gold, orange, purple, and some other colors I have not grown yet. I am growing this year for the first time, a "sweet chocolate" that is supposed to be, or turn brown. I would bet it eventually turns red, sometime before it rots.

Some peppers start out yellow, purple, orange, or some color other than green. But, all I have ever grown also always end up red, if you wait long enough.

My all-time best producer has to be Brigadier, a green to red variety. This is the one I pick to use early in the summer if I want a green pepper, just because they are so productive, and among the ripe peppers, I prefer the gold and yellow ones to red and purple ones, as yellows seem sweeter to me. Jupitor is another good green to red.

My favorite yellow peppers have been Gold Standard and Early Sunsation. Golden Calwonder is supposed to be good also, and I bought some seed for it to use this year if I needed it. I did not, but will use some next year.

Ariane is a great orange pepper. Purple Beauty is a good dark purple one, and Tequila is a good lilac color.

The only pepper I have tried that I did not like was called "Orange Sun". They started green, and by the time they turned orange outside, they were turning black inside.

I just picked a bell pepper that was 8 oz and slightly larger than the ones in the grocery store, it had been holding steady for 2 weeks, couldnt stand it any longer, it didnt even look like it wanted to change color. Im making fajitas with it!!

thomis

Whichever pepper you decide to go with as a keeper, let me suggest that you read this post made about a year ago.

I decided to go with a heavier fertilization of bell peppers than I'd ever done before last year because of this post and was absolutely astonished at how well they performed, high production, thick-walled bells that were really delicious. I grew the one I grow every year, an open-pollinated bell pepper, Jupiter. I could hardly believe the difference. This one's a bit blurry but you get the idea:

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And this one below shows ripe bells still on the plants.

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Anyway, you might want to take the information into account that's given in this post if you're having trouble growing bells. And good luck with the variety you've chosen!

I'll put in a vote for Ace as well. Very productive! Trying King of the North for this season.

testing