Basket of Fire

A trailing F1 bred for hanging baskets, and a fixture of British garden centres every spring. The plant is smothered in small pods that ripen through deep purple, yellow and orange to scarlet, so a single plant carries four colours at once — which is the point of it. It reaches around 30cm tall with a 50cm spread, and tolerates cool weather better than most, fruiting outdoors well into autumn and longer under glass. At 80,000 to 100,000 SHU it is considerably hotter than its ornamental looks suggest.

Culinary uses

Fresh in salsas and stir-fries; pickled whole; dried for flakes. Often grown as much for display as for cooking.