Sweet Pepper Seeds
In the UK, you need really early peppers. After searching for many years, we are pleased to offer a range that are very quick to fruit, taste great,and do well in our dodgy summers.
Sowing Information
Please order your seeds in time. You really need to plant them by the start of March at the very latest to have any chance of a decent crop.
TIP: An electric propagator is ideal for starting pepper seed, but if you don't have one, you can still get excellent results by improvising with a warm airing cupboard, a radiator shelf or anywhere that is around 25-30C for at least a few hours in each day. (But beware that sunlight on a propagator can increase temperatures greatly, much hotter would cook your seeds!)
Once germinated, the seedlings will grow on at lower temperatures. We find we can grow excellent plants when our propagator is full by starting seed on the counter next to our Rayburn & then growing on in a sunny windowsill.
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‘Golden Cal-Wonder’
An old heirloom dating from the 1920s, and one of the better yellow bell peppers, now reselected for higher yields. This one has particularly sweet flesh, and the blocky-four lobed fruit are produced on sturdy short plants, which are just crammed with peppers. Outstanding!
ripens from green to yellow, sweet!
at least 20 seed £2.63
‘Orange Horizon’ Amazing but LIMITED AVILABILITY
A new orange bell pepper we found in 2021, making thick walled bell peppers 3 to 4 inches in diameter. One of the few orange bells that does well in this country - just superb. The plants are quite short but even so need staking to support the weight of all the peppers!
An early and sweet strain suitable for the UK; not very seedy so only a few packets each year.
16 seed £2.89
Amy ( Pale Yellow)
A lovely early wax (yellow) pepper, with a blocky-pointed shape, the kind traditionally grown all over central Europe. This one is from the Czech Republic, and it's very productive with loads of fruit per plant. One of our long-standing favourite varieties, it's great fresh in salads or cooked.
Sweet and productive, pick when young and yellow for an early crop, or leave them to ripen to deep red (it does go red later).
18 seed £2.49
Kaibi Round
We released this in 2009, and it is still the best-flavoured, meatiest pepper that we've got. From the Antonov family farm in central Bulgaria where it was been grown for generations. The original seed was given to us by Mitko Antonov - from that we selected several lines, and from those we have bred this new variety. It's great - the plants are very quickly covered in medium-sized juicy red bells, with very thick crisp flesh, and a particularly satisfying flavour. They are also excellent used green earlier in the season.
Excellent flavour both green early in the season, or left to ripen to red.
18 seed, organic. £3.39
Kapia
This is a hugely popular red pepper grown all over Eastern Europe and round the Middle East. It's widely adapted and you will recognise it as the large sweet pointy peppers sold in jars in supermarkets. It is particularly suited to roasting or char-grilling, but is also very nice just sliced and fried as normal.
There are many versions of this classic pepper in different countries, and we have here seed of an excellent strain maintained in The Netherlands.
Pointy, sweet, productive.
18 seed £2.79
Lipstick
This is a long standing favourite of ours. Lipstick is an ultra-early sweet pepper bred specifically for cooler climate market gardeners and it does very well in the UK. We have now reselected the original strain for bigger meatier peppers, and that is the seed we are now offering you - it's really good! The small plants quickly set lots of 4" pointy green fruit which ripen to a truly lipstick-red colour. They're tasty, sweet and delicious raw or cooked.
Pointy, good thick flesh, early to fruit.
14 seed, organic. £3.29
Napia - EARLY & PROLIFIC
This is another incredibly early red pepper, with pointy red fruit and spirally curled-up tips like a turkish slipper. It was given to us by a Bulgarian student about 20 years ago, & has really good thick, crunchy sweet flesh - really good raw as awell as cooked.
It has always done very well in our trials, consistently coming ready in the earliest group of peppers.
18 seed, organic. £2.99
Semaroh
We discovered this lovely sweet pepper in 2010; the plants are compact and it looks great covered in the ripening yellow-orange fruit, which finish up deep red, although they are tasty at all stages.
It is unusual to find an early-fruiting variety of this shape pepper, but Semaroh does well in the UK: the plants are early and productive, with lots of foot-long pointy sweet peppers.
Slice and fry, or char-grill them.
18 seed £2.84
Slovakia
An early-fruiting traditional sweet pepper from Eastern Europe, back in the catalogue after a gap of a few years. The peppers are fat, pale green, pointy fruit that ripen to a really dark red.A big success in our pepper trials but we've not had any seed since 2015 , so we're really pleased to be able to offer it once again.
Pick and use it early green, or wait and pick when red - either way it has a good strong sweet-peppery flavour.
25 seed £2.79
Sweet Chocolate
This beautiful chocolate-brown sweet bell pepper is a favourite of ours. Yet another wonderful variety from the late Prof Meader, who devoted his life to breeding veg suited to the needs of home gardeners in cooler climates.
It looks amazing sliced in salads, as the chocolate skin hides a cherry-red interior, but is also excellent cooked. We love it roasted, which really brings out the delicious sweet flavour. Famous for its earliness and sweetness - the chocolate-coloured skin helps it absorb whatever sunlight there is available.
Beautiful and delicious.
18 seed, organic. £3.14
Sweet Spirals - FANTASTIC
This was a great find in our pepper trials last year, it's incredibly sweet and flavoursome. The fruit are long (about 7 inches) & twisted into a spiral, and really sweet. It starts out very light green , & ripens to red. A very, very productive variety, pick at any stage - either green or red - and enjoy chopped in salads or equally well cooked. It is also a great raw as a snack or lunchbox pepper - we find ourselves munching on them whole in the office whenever we have some in from the field!
Delicious Snack or Cooking Pepper. New seed, but some are dormant: sow 2 seed per pot - we have put in extras to allow for this.
16 seed, organic. £2.69
Yellow Monster - HUGE
This is a quick-growing giant bell pepper that grows to 4" wide by 6" long - or more! It's quite early, and the huge peppers turn bright sunshine yellow as they ripen.
It has a particularly good flavour when it gets to the yellow stage. Smaller packet as they make few seeds.
Really long bell peppers - perfect for stuffing, or just munching on.
18 seed £3.30
Zitava Sweet Paprika - AMAZING FLAVOUR
This is so delicious. It's early, intensely dark red, with a really rich flavour. Originally a paprika pepper - to dry and grind to make your own sweet paprika powder – but we find it is absolutely delicious just roasted whole.
It makes large numbers of dark red peppers about 4 inches long, their walls are quite thin to aid with drying. Quite delicious roasted on a BBQ grill and munched out of hand.
Not at all hot - this is a sweet paprika type. Great to add colour and flavour to your cooking.
20 seed £2.59Unusual Sweet Peppers
‘Dedo de Mocha’ Sweet Ají
A hot pepper without the heat, from pepper expert Jeff Nekola. Ají are a different species: Capsicum baccatum. This is one of the largest-fruited of our Ají peppers, the beautiful fruit are shiny, almost waxy in appearance and glow a deep red when ripe.
Incredibly productive, & a favourite every year, we like it grilled and served with olive oil. Without the heat, subtle undertones of Ají flavour come out, with distinct smokey tastes being the most obvious.
One of the easier of our unusual / rare peppers to grow, though you do need a polytunnel or greenhouse. If you want a challenge - it can be overwintered if you keep it frost-free - we did have one plant that made it to 3 years old and in its last year it made over 270 peppers!
We have had a couple of reports one year of stressed plants making some heat near the seeds. But in normal conditions this should be classed as a sweet pepper.
Very rare, pretty easy to grow. Gently smokey Aji. Not hot - mostly: the very occasional pepper is warm, especially towards the end of the season, or with plants in their second or third year.
18 seed, organic. £2.68
Trinidad Perfume - NEW
A most amazing scent and flavour - a Scotch Bonnet with NO heat. Once you take away the chilli fire, the incredible fruity Capsicum chinense flavour really stands out. Just a few fruit sliced thinly make an amazing pizza topping, or add a new dimension to a pasta sauce.
A little more challenging to grow than normal peppers, so not for beginners. Needs a greenhouse or polytunnel, where it will make lots of pretty little orange fruits.
Sadly these contain hardly any seeds, hence the small packet and higher price. Save your own for next season - it won't cross with regular (C. annum) chillies or sweet peppers.
Very limited availability, but what a taste!
8 seed £4.20