Hot peppers are perennials?

[seedcorn]

Went to Louisianna on vaca. At the one hotel we stayed at, the owners father had a garden. He cuts them back, then in spring they green up and bear. They were about 4' tall. His okra grew about 10' tall before it was done. He had 4 different types if green beans with one being a vine that bore purple beans. He also grew something that looked like elephant ears that they ate.

Fell in love with crape myrtle trees but they aren't hardy in my zone. Were they beautiful, tho.

All that wasted on them........

 

[desertlady]

going on vacation is so hard that makes me want to bring their garden home with me !!

 

[Nyboy]

When ever I go on vacation I try to bring back some thing for the garden.

 

[bj taylor]

the elephant ear type thing was taro wasn't it? I grow an ornamental bean called hyacinth bean. it's purple. it seems to be the only bean I can manage to grow. I wish my peppers were perennial. a little too cold for that.
yes, the crepe myrtles are great. they come itty bitty to great big. they sure know how to make a mess though.

 

[Smart Red]

In their native habitat peppers - hot or sweet - are perennials. I kept three pepper plants in pots that I sunk in the garden in the summer and lifted to over-wintered in the sun room. They flowered and fruited for three years before they succumbed to my gross neglect.

 

[journey11]

When ever I go on vacation I try to bring back some thing for the garden.

I do that too. And rocks, big ones...lol. I am notorious for taking cuttings along the way. *sneaky*

I only recently learned that about peppers too, Seedcorn. Neat, huh. I always thought the stems looked more woody.

 

[seedcorn]

I'm going to dig a gypsy plant up ans see if I can over winter it. I'm open to suggestions on how. Will they go dormant?

 

[NwMtGardener]

I brought my potted peppers inside a few times for winter, with varying degrees of sucess. They are already in pots, so before frost i do a gradual transition to inside. One time my goal was to just get the thai hot dragons to turn red all the way, so i could snip them off and hang them and dry them. Didnt work too great, they really didnt get much redder, and the ones i eventually snipped that weren't all the way red didnt dry very well. Another time i got a bad infestation of aphids in my plant, and just ended up hucking it outside in the middle of winter. I think i've had one or two make it to the next season,out of the handful of times i've tried it.

BTW red thai hot dragon plants are very festive for christmas!

 

[journey11]

Hmm, good question. You could treat it like a houseplant, but sometimes things from the garden just seem to breed gnats and whiteflies over the winter. Definitely shake off the garden dirt and pot it up with some fresh potting soil to get rid of whatever might have been living in the garden soil. I would think it would be best to go dormant. Maybe how I did my fig tree....bag the whole thing, pot and all, with a large enough clear plastic bag and tie the top. Give it just one cup of water once each month. And tuck it into a cool, dark corner, like in a basement, but be sure it won't freeze. Come March, open it up and take it to a sunny window, give it a good pruning and a good watering. That's my best guess anyway. We'll want to know how this turns out.

 

[so lucky]

Seedcorn, do you have a light to put the pepper plant under? ( not needed, I don't think, if you use Journey's suggestion)