Ornamental edible plants

There are certain rules we follow if we adhere to the traditional dogma of landscape design. These rules tell us what plants can be planted where, what types of plants work well in combination with each other, even what shapes, textures, and heights are most appealing. As is often the case, these rules serve as a helpful guide, but strict adherence to them can be boring or even problematic.

Take for example the way edible plants have typically been incorporated into residential landscapes. Traditionally if you grew vegetables, you did so in a large rectangular shaped vegetable garden somewhere in the backyard. If you had fruit trees, or grape vines, or blueberries, they were likely similarly confined to a particular section in the backyard. However, as property sizes shrink, the trend of incorporating these plants into flower beds and mixed areas, referred to as edible landscaping, has become more common. Perhaps the natural extension of erasing the lines between where edible plants and ornamental plants is to breed ornamental versions of favorite edible plants.

We’ve seen this with sweetpotato, our state vegetable. Ornamental sweetpotato cultivars have been bred to highlight the color and texture of the foliage, and these are now commonly used in containers, hanging baskets, or as groundcovers. This weekend, my wife went shopping for some fall decorations for the porch and yard, and came home with classic “fall” plants like mums and sunflowers, but also with a few different types of ornamental peppers. These plants are the same species, Capsicum annuum, as the peppers we eat, but are cultivars that have been bred specifically to enhance their ornamental characteristics (color, size, and shape of the fruit), more so than the flavor or taste.

Top left: 'Medusa' ornamental pepper cultivar; Top right: Ornamental peppers and leaves. Photo: JTP, CC BY 2.0 Middle left: 'Purple Flash' orna-mental pepper plant; Middle right: 'Basket of Fire' pepper cultivar; Bottom: 'Sweet Caroline' sweetpotato cultivar.

Ornamental pepper cultivars are often more compact than the varieties we grow for food, and fruit tend to form primarily at the apex of each stem rather than along the stem and in leaf axils. These smaller plants are easy to fit in containers, or pop into the ground to fill empty spaces in sunny flower beds in late summer or fall, and the cluster of fruit at the top creates a striking visual display during a time of year where flower color in the garden begins to become sparse. The cultivar that my wife purchased is called ‘Medusa,’ which forms red, long, skinny, Cayenne-like fruit that point in all directions, resembling in full bloom the mythical character Medusa’s head of snakes. Other popular ornamental cultivars include ’Basket of Fire,’ which produces fruit in a mix of orange, yellow, and red, resembling a burst of flames, and ‘Purple Flash,’ a purple-leaved variety with small rounded fruit that are almost black.

Wherever you choose to plant your ornamental peppers, make sure they are in full sun, and have moist, well-drained soil. They can tolerate being a little on the dry side, but they don’t like being overly wet, so providing adequate drainage is very important.

Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705.