NuMex Easter

NuMex Easter is an All-America Selections-winning ornamental chilli with pastel-coloured upright pods - cream, lavender, peach, and orange tones rather than the bright vivid colours of typical multi-colour ornamentals. The pastel palette gave the variety its Easter-themed name. Compact, bushy, and prolific, NuMex Easter combines ornamental appeal with very mild edible heat (500-2,500 SHU) and pleasant sweet character beneath the visual focus.

History & lineage

NuMex Easter was developed at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute and released through commercial channels in the early 21st century. The variety belongs to NMSU's ongoing ornamental chilli breeding programme, which has produced multiple distinctive ornamental cultivars alongside the institution's better-known commercial New Mexico chile varieties. NuMex Easter received All-America Selections recognition shortly after release - one of relatively few ornamental chillies to earn AAS status.

The defining feature is the pastel colour palette. Where most multi-colour ornamental chillies (Bolivian Rainbow, Chinese 5-Color, NuMex Twilight) display bright vivid colours - bright purple, vivid yellow, intense orange - NuMex Easter shows softer pastel tones. The cream-lavender-peach-orange pod colours produce a noticeably different visual effect from brighter alternatives, with the softer palette suiting Easter-themed garden displays and similar applications where bright colours would be aesthetically wrong.

The variety belongs to a small but interesting category of "soft palette" ornamental chillies that distinguish themselves from the broader bright-colour ornamental category. NuMex Easter, NuMex Twilight, and a handful of other NMSU ornamentals occupy this specific niche, providing growers and landscape designers with options for chilli-based displays beyond the standard bright-colour expectations.

For home growers, NuMex Easter suits container and bedding display particularly well. The very compact growth habit (typically 30-45 cm tall) makes the variety practical for patio containers, decorative planter displays, and ornamental garden bedding. UK home growers report reliable success with NuMex Easter in greenhouse and warmer outdoor cultivation, with the variety providing extended ornamental interest through a long pod-display season alongside reasonable casual culinary use.

Culinary uses

Primarily ornamental given the small pod size and mild heat, but the chillies are entirely edible and pleasant. Used fresh in salads where the pastel colour mix provides unusual visual appeal, or pickled whole for striking jar displays. The mild heat means quantities can be eaten without overwhelming dishes, making NuMex Easter one of the more genuinely edible-and-ornamental varieties compared to hotter ornamental chillies.