I have seeds for a pepper that I do not know the name of. It produces beautiful purple and green leaves and the peppers are all shades from purple, mauve, dusty rose. It is really a beautiful plant. I mixed it last year with other annuals and the combo looked great.

Personally, my experience cooking w/ HOT peppers is that many can be substituted one for the other, except for extreme HOT varieties which is out of the ornamental league. (Although it's quite possible to have some peppers dissipate their heat when cooked at high temperatures.) In perspective, it's almost like cooking soup w/ well water vs. store bought spring water. A person can convince themselves there is a difference when infact the difference may be minimal. I have a good friend that has cooked w/ many varieties of HOT peppers and firmly believes that "Ring of Fire" peppers are the only type that transfers it's heat to other foods when cooked together. As each person is unique, you may want to experiment cooking w/ ornamentals much like you would using other HOT peppers. Pickling or drying hot peppers is another matter. Some hot peppers are better suited than others for each preservation method. Paul B.

I am surprised that many of you don't think ornamental peppers have any taste or taste like carrots. These make great pickled peppers to use on steaks, in salads, eggs, etc. The Medusa taste like pimentos. There are are hot varieties as well. I grew them in Texas, and I am working on growing them in Utah. You don't need to remove the seeds. To pickle them use 12 oz of a wine vinegar above 5% acidity is best if you want to keep an open bottle in the pantry rather than the frig. I actually like Champagne Vinegar at 7%. With 8 oz of peppers that have had the caps removed and the initial 12 oz of vinegar, bring to a boil, and then add 4 peeled cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary, and simmer for 10 minutes. Let the peppers cool for a bit and place in a sterilized jar. Washing the jar in the dishwasher will work, or boil it 10 minutes will do as well. Place peppers in jar, cover with the vinegar, topping off with extra vinegar if needed. Place in the pantry for 6 weeks, after which they are ready to eat. There are all types of wonderful vinegar's available, There are red and white wine, Champagne and Sherry vinegar's. As I plan to can mine, I will boil them initially and add the garlic and rosemary, and then I will place them in sterilized bottles and place the sterilized canning lids and rims on them, and then place them in the same boiling water I used to sterilize the bottles and boil them for 10 minutes. Turning the heat off and letting them set for additional 10 minutes. Remove them and let them cool down. The lids will pop as they cool and become vacuum packed. I suggest you read up on canning and get a simple kit with the tongs, jars holders, funnel, etc. You don't need to get a large canning pot as you can use a large walled pot, and as long as the filled jars are covered by 1.5-2 inches of boiling water. I use 8-12 oz canning jars. These make great gifts to show of your culinary skills. Btw, The plants can be dug up and stored in pots or those plastic plant containers to over winter in the garage if it doesn't get too cold or a basement with windows. Water now and again, but not too much. They seem to be slow growers here in Utah, so the plants are out in the grow boxes in full sun and loving it, where as my seedlings are slowly growing. I plan to over winter them again. I just harvested 2 pounds processed peppers from the 2 year old plants. Good luck and enjoy. I expect more by the end of the season.

I strongly suspect that they will be edible, in fact, I'm almost 100% certain; I don't know of any member of the several chilli species that isn't edible. As to palatability and heat, I couldn't say, sorry. Err on the cautious side and assume hot. You can always add more if they turn out to be mild. Hope this helps.