I would follow growers advise quite closely for the chemical reason alone. If the label says not edible, don't eat it. However I don't think anyone would be idiotic enough to produce/breed a poisonous chilli, that would be criminal. Someone, somewhere will eventually eat it, if not direct from the store bought plant, fruit from it's seedlings etc. I bought a grafted lemon tree in full fruit and it was labelled as inedible for "ornamental purposes only". This irritated me as it grew extremely well when planted and produced fruit second to none. It produced flowers and fruit all year and good healthy foliage. For different reasons I then spent months tracking down it's wholesaler and then grower in Sicily, the wholesaler had already stopped stocking citrus. When I got to the bottom of it I was told it was a speciality lemon, specialite regionale (the Italian version) used for forcing and extremely edible, a highly prized variety grown on virus resistant stock. The middle men the wholesaler and exporter in a different country entirely said they had been treating the trees with systemic fungicides and pesticides when in full fruit at time of sale and thats why they were labelled as such. Of course they might not have been so enticing for the consumer had the label said "danger this plant has been treated with lethal toxic chemicals". And of course after a couple of years I had already tasted the fruit and decided they were stunningly delicious, both good for juice and zesting. I was more interested in the variety and graft stock used as it did so well. But had I been tempted to try the fruit straight away I might have become seriously sick.....so just shows. It can take awhile for systemic chemicals to be neutralised and in a short lived plant like a chilly pepper......not worth it. White fly apparently is a big problem in production of chilly pepper plants and is often difficult to eradicate without systemics, which are often used anyway to stop even a small possibility of an accidental infestation that could ruin an entire crop of plants. I live for the day ornamental pot plants and garden plants are labelled "organically produced", but when it says not for consumption believe it.

hi i would like to trade or sase for some flying dragon seeds. i might have some ornamental peppers somewhere, i know i have some pepper seeds, but i would have to check through my stash. i have some freshly harvested shishito pepper seeds, i wouldnt call that one ornamental - but it is yummy. anywho i do have a large trade list posted HERE, or could do a sase, or rather a sasbe, if thats what you want.

Hello! Are you still looking for Chinese 5 color pepper seeds? I have some I bought from Baker Creek this year I could trade for your glass gem corn if you like. I also have a small amount of Sweet Pickle pepper seeds (another small-fruited, edible ornamental pepper).

I have honey locust seeds, butterfly weed seeds, and 2 varieties of ornamental pepper seeds (Medusa, which is sweet, and black pearl, which is super hot). Anyone up for a trade? Check out my trade list: https://www.houzz.com/gardenWebTradeList/user/gcunniff79