Aurora Peppers: Hot, Tiny & Late

We planted Aurora Pepper seeds from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA in March, under grow-lights. They took so long to germinate (over two weeks) that we were ready to declare them DOA. Then tiny leaves appeared, and they started to grow. 

By May, they were about two inches tall, and, impatient, we planted them out - two in containers, one in a bed in the Lower Garden. They've been in full sun, as the directions for growing suggest, all summer long. We watered them to get them through the steamy 90 degree + days without withering. 

Finally, toward the end of July, little purple bulbs started to emerge. They've taken nearly a month to reach almost maturity. They go from purple to yellow to orange to a deeper orange/red when they are ready to harvest. The leaves are mostly a dark green. 

They would make a lovely edible landscape. I can see planting these out in front of the house at some point. They're decorative. 

While the seed packet said that they are medium-hot, we've found the two we've harvested so far to be blazing hot. We put them into a salsa that we made with them, with some of our many, many tomatoes and with our cilantro, and two went a very long way toward giving the recipe some heat. Rather a lot of heat, actually.

I thought they'd be bigger. 

We'll save some of the seeds and plant again, I think. But they do take an amazing amount of time, and definitely need a head start indoors if you're going to grow them in Minnesota.