Elmhurst Chillies • Seeds & Seedlings

Sadly, due to the devastating and untimely passing of my husband, Blair, I have made the decision to close Elmhurst Chillies indefinitely. This was our joint project and passion, and I don't have it in me to continue it alone.

Thank you to everyone for your support, and I will continue to watch the growth of the chilli industry in Aotearoa from the sidelines.

Although it's sad to be nearing the end of the chilli season here in Aotearoa New Zealand, these sub-zero mornings bring plenty of beauty for us to admire in nature. 💚

Just been de-seeding some of these Peach Habaneros this evening, and wow, you could smell the heat in the air! My fingers are still feeling the burn... and I was even wearing gloves!

Scoville Heat Units for habaneros are typically in the range of 150,000 - 350,000, but can be hotter. Despite the pretty colour of these chillies, they definitely have a kick!

8-year-old child's hands in the second picture for scale 🧡🧡🧡

The 7 Pot Primo was developed by Troy Primeaux in the USA, back in 2005. It's a cross between a Trinidad 7-Pot and a Naga Morich.

This chilli has a characteristic scorpion-like tail. It ripens from light green through to a vibrant red, although yellow and orange varieties also exist. It is VERY hot, with Scoville Heat Units of 1 - 1.5 million, and a fruity, floral flavour.

If you only ever came across a fully-ripe Fish Pepper, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was pretty unremarkable; it simply resembles a small Serrano. However, whilst it does taste similar to a Serrano, and it is, in fact, believed to be a hybrid of the Serrano and the Cayenne, its immature form is a sight to behold!

The leaves of the plant can range from full green to variegated green and white. The pods follow a similar trend, going from creamy white, to light green with darker green striations, then orange with dark red-brown striations. When it's completely red, it's fully mature and will be at its hottest stage.

Scoville Heat Units: 5,000 - 30,000. Use in ways you'd typically use a Jalapeno or a Serrano, but also mix it up and use the immature fruit in white sauces!

The Naga Morich is a superhot chilli that originates from Bangladesh or North-East India. It's closely related to the Bhut Jolokia (a.k.a. "ghost pepper"), but can be even hotter, with Scoville Heat Units that can exceed 1 million.

The burn starts off relatively slowly but builds to a blazing heat. This chilli has a fruity, somewhat floral flavour, and it's very aromatic. It ripens from green through to orange and finally to a rich, fiery red.

Nature in action on the chilli plants!

The Orange Lantern chilli is a C. chinense variety with lantern-shaped pods that start off green before maturing to a creamy orange.
Don't let the prettiness fool you - the heat in these crunchy pods packs a decent kick!

SHU 80,000 - 100,000

First harvest of the Aji Fantasy Sparkly White 🌟

These interesting-shaped pods start off as light green before maturing to a creamy, "sparkly" white colour. They have thick, firm, crunchy walls, with a fruity, sweet, fresh flavour.

The pods are around 5-7cm long and 4-5cm wide, with a downward-facing, bell-like shape. The spice level is reasonably mild, with Scoville Heat Units in the range of 5,000 - 10,000 SHU.

Fijian Bongo chilli!

We bought several of these plants from a Fijian Indian grocery store here in Hamilton, that had HEAPS of seedlings. We weren't 100% sure what we'd get, but it appears we're getting true-to-type pods.

The Fijian Bongo is a habanero variety, with 6-7cm long pods that start off as a light/lime green and ripen to red.

The flesh is a bit thicker than most habaneros, but it also tastes a bit sweeter - which we didn't expect, given the size.

Scoville Heat Units are 100,000 - 350,000.

Definitely recommend these! 🌶

The Hungarian Black chilli closely resembles a jalapeno in appearance, but the plant has beautiful purple flowers, and pods that ripen from dark purple/black to red.

Scoville Heat Units are 5,000 - 10,000. This is great as both a culinary and an ornamental chilli. When in its black phase, the chilli is rather sweet, but it gets hotter as it ripens to red.

This is the Paper Lantern Habanero 🌶

It's more productive than a typical habanero plant, and the pods are more elongated. They ripen from lime green to orange and finally to a bright red. Scoville Heat Units are 150,000 - 350,000.

The pods have thin walls which make them ideal for drying and making powders, flakes or other seasonings.

One of our new varieties this year - this is the Brown Jalapeno!

The pods start off green but then mature to a warm brown colour. They have a subtle, smokey flavour with a mild heat that's typical of a jalapeno.

Scoville Heat Units are in the vicinity of 3,500 - 5,000.

The Chocolate Devil's Tongue chilli has a Scoville Heat Unit rating of 125,000 - 325,000. It has a fruity, smoky flavour, with a relatively thick-walled, curvy, wrinkly pod. It would be great for pickling, or as a base for salsa or hot sauce. The ~1m-high plants seem to produce a very high yield of these interesting pods.

Every now and then I get surprised by something new about the chilli world, and this was a perfect example!

These pictures are of the Bleeding Kraken Scorpion, which we chose to grow this season solely because our 8-year-old son loved the name! (And yes, that's his hand in the first photo!)

Check out the change in the calyx (which is basically the 'top') of the chilli...

So the award for the first Baccatum variety to ripen goes to... the Aji Melocoton! 🧡

Baccatum varieties are notoriously slow to ripen, so we plant them early in comparison to many of our other chillies, but they're still an exercise in patience when it comes to ripening!

I know I've done a few posts about the Purple Pumpkin chillies now, but I'm just so stoked about how much better they're producing this season compared to last season! Not to mention the gorgeous colours they're presenting as the pods go through their ripening phases. 💜🧡❤️

This is the Kopay chilli, which produces long, thin, somewhat curly pods that ripen from green to red. As you can see, even on the same plant, you can get quite a bit of pod variation.

The Kopay has a similar taste, heat and texture to a cayenne chilli, but is certainly much more interesting looking!

Scoville Heat Units: 30,000 - 50,000

Biquinho Iracema chillies were unfortunately one of the varieties that suffered badly for us last season with the pre-Christmas hailstorm and then the summer cyclones in early 2023... so we're SUPER excited to have these growing well again this season!

Aside from being cute and pretty, they're also really tasty and sweet - I think they're like the lollies of the chilli world 🍬

The 'Lion Shark' chilli is a cross between a red Carolina Reaper and a Pimenta da Neyde. Eventually these pods will ripen to a beautiful peach/purple colour. We can't wait to taste these beauties!

We received a few queries about the variegation and leaf colour of the Scarlett's Chilli last year, so we did a little experiment this season, and now we're sharing our (completely non-scientific! 🤣) results...

It's relatively commonly-known amongst that, with the varieties that have darker leaves, the darkness will become more pronounced based on the amount of direct sunlight received (more direct sunlight = darker leaves).

Check out these photos.... the first one has had lots of *filtered* sunlight (kept on a sunny windowsill until recently), whereas the three following photos are plants that have been outside in direct sunlight for weeks now (and we've had LOTS of sunlight these last few weeks!).

The last two photos are plants that have been outdoors, but in a shaded area. Still lots of visible variegation, but nowhere near the interesting colour profiles.

No doubt about it, the plant world is awesome 💚🌶🌱☀️🔥

Good harvest of Yellow Fire Flame chillies in the gorgeous sunshine today! 🌞 🌶

These are a cayenne-type chilli (Capsicum annuum) that produce lots of long yellow peppers. This unique variety matures from dark green to glossy bright yellow when ripe.

These are great for Asian cooking, and they grow really well in pots - you'll get lots of tasty fruit from this variety.

Lots of Purple Pumpkin pods growing in the sunshine!

It's no secret that I 💜 purple flowers on chilli plants, so here are some gorgeous Purple Pumpkin chillies that will soon be podding up!
Even though it's still relatively early in the season here in Aotearoa, these plants are growing better than they did last year, so we're expecting a great yield this summer 🌶🌶🌶

Great news - we have some 'Get Growing' Variety Packs left over from Plant Extravaganza on the weekend, so these are now listed on our website. At $22 a box, that's an awesome 20% off the individual seed packet pricing! It's not yet too late to plant your chilli seeds, and it's looking like we have a gorgeous long, hot summer ahead of us - so get in quick!

P.S. These could also be a great Christmas gift for the spice-lover in your life 🌶

Each box includes one pack each of:
- Bird's Eye Red
- Bishop's Crown
- Bulgarian Carrot
- Jalapeno
- Padron

It's less than two weeks until we're at at !

One of our extravaganza-only specials will be our "Get Growing Variety Pack", which contains six packs of mild-to-medium seed varieties for those who want to try growing their own chillies for the first time.

These variety packs will include one seed pack each of the following:
- Birds Eye Red
- Bishops Crown
- Cayenne
- Bulgarian Carrot
- Jalapeno
- Padron