In the spring of 2023, I planted a mini bell pepper plant and the results have been phenomenally satisfying.
I thought this was a gimmick plant sent to me by a seed company, but it is much more than that. While my specimen is only two feet tall, it has produced around two dozen fruit each year. They change color from green to orange to red, reaching between 1 1/2 to 2 inches in size.
These mini peppers are a great way to get little kids interested in vegetables because they easily fit into the hand of a toddler. The taste is as flavorful as a full-sized bell pepper but probably a tad more piquant. I have learned there are a multitude of mini pepper varieties from which to choose, including Chocolate (at seedsavers.org), whose color is that of most people’s favorite candy. At rareseeds.com, you can procure a packet of 25 “sweet pepper seeds mini bell mix” for $3. And since these mini peppers are heirlooms, their seeds will grow into mini pepper plants too.
Peppers are day-neutral plants, meaning they can flower and produce a crop all year long. Long-day plants — California poppies and coneflowers (Echinacea), for example — need at least 12 hours of day length to flower. Short-day plants – chrysanthemum, poinsettia, and Christmas cactus — flower when day length is less than 12 hours.
Interestingly enough, tomatoes and eggplants, like peppers, are also day-neutral. This means that in their tropical habit, these three members of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family produce a crop all year long. The limiting factor to their flowering and fruiting here is temperature. These three plants are also perennial in the tropics although we typically grow them as annuals. However, peppers have a reputation for longevity that surpasses that of its cousins as I learned when a chili pepper plant I grew from seed endured for four years. People who live in cold climates have been known to overwinter their pepper plants indoors and put them outside again when spring arrives.
An investigation into the subject of mini vegetables reveals a plethora of options in this category. I was astonished to learn that there is a species of tomato whose fruit is as small as a pea. Known as Spoon tomatoes — you can comfortably stack over two dozen of them on a soup spoon — they harken back to the original wild tomato or so-called currant tomato from which all tomato varieties and hybrids derive. The species name of the currant tomato, the mother of all tomato plants, is Solanum pimpinellifolium, indigenous to Ecuador and Peru, and it includes annual, biennial, and perennial types that freely hybridize with tomatoes of every description and, until today, are employed in the development of new tomato varieties.
As for eggplants, the Patio Baby variety yields tiny purple-black fruit that are two inches long and one inch wide. whereas Thai Lavender Frog Eggs are tiny spherical eggplants, 15 of which you could hold in the palm of your hand. A packet of 25 Patio Baby seeds is available at territorialseed.com for $4.95 and 25 Thai Lavender Frog Egg seeds can be yours via rareseeds.com for $3.50. Finally, Casper is a white eggplant that is six inches long with a diameter of two inches. You can procure 50 Casper seeds for $3.95 at seedsavers.org. It should be noted that the price of vegetable seeds via seedsavers.org is often less than you will find elsewhere.
Most of us are probably familiar with baby carrots, but did you know there are quite a number of diminutive lettuce varieties too? Tom Thumb is a butterhead type the size of a baseball that is ready to harvest after only 35-50 days of growth, while Little Gem is slower growing but reaches only four inches across and about the same height or a little taller. Both varieties are available at territorialseed.com.
I was reminded of the miniaturization of plants while visiting Otto & Sons Nursery in Fillmore. There, I encountered a rose variety called pink Tumbleweed, an example of a miniature rose whose flowers are barely 1 inch in size. Miniature roses make excellent borders or low hedges, an example being this variety which grows only 18 inches tall and wide.
In the Australian section of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, I came upon a dwarf peppermint willow (Agonis flexuosa ‘Nana’). It was planted as ground cover under a eucalyptus tree and was flourishing there. I thought this was an important discovery. The list of plants that grow well under eucalyptus trees is short. The beauty of dwarf peppermint willow, an evergreen for full to partial sun, is in its foliage since older leaves are a lush green, while emergent leaves and stems are red. In Australia, it is commonly used as an informal hedge. While it will eventually reach six feet in height, it can easily be kept lower with occasional pruning. Its leaves emit a strong peppermint fragrance when crushed. Dwarf peppermint willow survives a frost but may suffer damage when temperatures dip into the mid-20s. To the best of my knowledge, the only local nursery growing dwarf peppermint willow is San Marcos Growers in Carpinteria.
Speaking of which, It was with considerable sadness I noticed that San Marcos Growers, a purveyor of exotic plants for four decades, is closing up at the end of next year. Their website at smgrowers.com includes a valuable catalog of their plants and I urge you to carefully study it if you want to add some of the species listed to your garden while they are still available. San Marcos is a wholesale grower so you will need to special order the plants of your desire through any of the retail nurseries they supply. Check “retail locator” on the left side of their home page to find a nursery near you that carries San Marcos plants. In its announcement about closing, it was encouraging to read that: “In the meantime, we will be actively exploring all opportunities that might keep our many unique plants available in the trade and have the name ‘San Marcos Growers’ and its informational website live on.”
California Native of the Week: Indigo bushes show off stunning indigo blue, pea-like flowers in early spring. Denizens of desert washes and sand dunes, their unforgettable blooms emerge after winter rains have abated. Their leguminous status means they make their own nitrogenous fertilizer and may be found growing in soil bereft of any decaying plant matter that could provide them with some measure of mineral sustenance. Three species share floral characteristics with Mojave indigo bush (Psorothamnus arborescens) growing 3-6 feet tall, Schott’s indigo bush (Psorothamnus schottii) reaching 6 feet, and smoke tree (Psorothamnus spinosus) growing up to 25 feet tall. Small leaves are soft, deeply lobed, and green turning to silver, while silver spines zigzagging every which way are an added attraction. Their flowers are attractive to hummingbirds and bumblebees and the presence of any of these species would be a valuable addition to a garden of natives or other drought tolerant selections. I have not been able to locate sources for indigo bushes or their seeds but if any of you know of where they can be found, please advise.
Is there a miniature or dwarf plant that you grow to perfection and would like more people to know about? If so, please let us know the story of your success by writing to joshua@perfectplants.com Your questions, comments, gardening predicaments, and triumphs are always welcome.
