Seeing a post about flamethrower chillies, reminded me that I want to have a serious go at growing chillies. This is partly to entertain a possible visit in summertime of the little lady from LOS. Like many thai visitors they originate from rural parts and mine greatly enjoys seeing something edible in the garden.
I then come to the sticky subject of which variety/cultivar.
Needless to say she will want the atomic varieties, but she is concious that mouth my has its pain barrier and so a compromies would desirable.
I DO actually have some horticultural training and some criterea come to mind. Which ones actually reliably ripen, keeping qualities, longevity of cropping and most of all desirability to our partners/friends/guests/visitors.
What I,m really after is a reccomendation from someone based on genuine success. Needless to say I,m refering to the climate in the uk and in this case the home counties.
ON A TOTALLY and less serious note, does the anglo saxon mouth ever become totally immune to the full strength of our thai friends catering ???? or I am I the only one who struggles ??.

Bought two packets of Chilli seeds from www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk ,Joes long cayenne and Tobasco, had a good show. the Joes hung down about five inches long, wife said they were mildly hot, the Tobasco were sticking up one inch and a quarter long and very very hot, learned something today, wife told me in all innocence of Chilli's, if it stick up it dangerous if it hang down it safe it seems they are perennials, so have not pulled them up in the greenhouse, but to me they look dead.

Dead easy to grow, even my wife can't kill them off. You get a good crop and they are very hot straight off the plant.

BigRed

Cheers Big Red, thats it then........if you grow them in the Pennines then we should be ok in leafy Surrey. Which variety do you grow ????

We are planning a new garden after our move and whlist browsing for Chili pepper gardening tips I stumbled upon this site http://webwonks.org/Hobbies/Peppers/Gardening.html

I really like his way of dealing with pests.

ash