Ornamental Pepper As A Houseplant

A year ago I was given seeds for this ornamental pepper called 'Black Pearl' and got around to sowing them pretty late in the season. When fall arrived the seeds had just barely begun to sprout but by the them the days started to grow shorter and I thought about just letting the plant die in the garden. But since the seeds were given to me by a gardener I decided to bring it indoors a long with my cacti and succulents and see what would happen.



I wasn't expecting much because I have not had any luck with keeping Rosemary indoors over the winter and I thought this ornamental pepper would suffer the same fate. Looking over the collection of plants I'm very surprised at how this little plant managed to make it through the winter. Since my window space is limited and that space is devoted to my cacti & succulents and my tender plants and bulbs, like my Amaryllis, I set this plant in a bathroom on the opposite side of a window.

Not only did it survive on low light but it survived a couple of times when I neglected to water it and the leaves shriveled up completely and I thought it was dead. But it didn't die and it bounced back as good as before after a few minutes of soaking in water.

The only negative reaction I noticed in this plant to my neglect- is in the leaves. If you notice the newer leaves are green and don't have the dark hue of the older leaves. This is a result of not getting much direct sun but I expect the leaves to color up now that the days are getting longer and we're getting some sun shine. I'll plant it in the garden when the threat of frost is over where it should get to be about 18 inches high and 16 inches wide and a produce fruit (not edible) that compliments the dark almost black colored foliage it gets in good sun.