When I first married into my husband's family, I was new to the Capsicum chinense family, but I thought I knew to what Scotch Bonnet was. A “Yank,” in a family ofyardies. For years I would buy Scotch Bonnet plants, and for years, brother-in-law would say “no.”
I did not know of “landraces,” that there were red and yellow Scotch bonnets, I did not know there were named cultivars. Since then, I have learned C. Capsicum can be a bit promiscuous, and as my father-in-law might say, may do some “mingling.”
One year, my mother-in-law harvested and gave me a pepper. We talked about its shape, its size, its color, not just the heat but the flavor, and especially the fragrance.
That year I scraped out the seeds, let the seeds dry, and saved them for the next season. I sprouted it, potted it up, and grew it on. I grow a lot of peppers, and understood it might have “mingled,” but I was excited to see the next generation.
What a beautiful plant! What amazing peppers! I over-wintered that plant through freezes, floods, triple digits, and wildfires. Some years I was not sure it would come back. Especially last year.
But it did!Phew! That was close. But I was not taking chances. I saved seed and grew another generation.