Chilli mania

I was supposed to grow a few different varieties of chillies this year, but things didn't exactly go to plan. I sowed two small packets of free chilli seeds (Cayenne and Anaheim) and some purple chillies (Numex R. Naky) and decided to ignore the instructions on the packet about heated propagators and keeping the temperature constant. I shouldn't have been surprised then, after weeks of waiting to see only one or two seedlings of each lifting their green heads from the compost.   

Thankfully it was a different story with my mystery seeds. I sowed a handful as I thought it unlikely most of the seeds would germinate and after a week had a tray full of seedlings.

At the present moment I have (thanks to a weekend trip to a very nice garden centre or two) five varieties of chilli plants happily growing in the greenhouses: Cayenne, Chenzo and Cheyenne came as a pack of six, a solitary Purple Gusto I couldn't leave in the shop because it said 'purple' (although apparently this too will eventually mature into a red chilli) and two Apache chillis fell into my shopping basket in Homebase, totally by accident. My own little seedlings are still being pampered in the baby veg section in the conservatory, but hopefully they'll catch up.

I now realise that my options for next year are as follows: I need to get my chillies as plants, buy a heated propagator or stick to growing one variety, Mystery Chilli.