Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 8 JuneA Bulgarian Carrot pepper on 12 June, its growing tip already forked into two shoots with the new leaves there paler than the rest, its glossy smooth-edged blades rippling slightly, in hard midday sun that throws long leaf shadows and blacks out the shade.Week of 6 JulyA Bulgarian Carrot pepper on 9 July, one thin upright stem and a single cream-white bud hanging at the node just below its tip, no fruit set yet — the white speckling over the leaves nothing but sun caught in standing dew, gossamer strung across the frame.Week of 3 AugustA Bulgarian Carrot pepper on 6 August, one long slender pod hanging half the height of the frame in glossy mid green, its shoulder lumpy and asymmetric with two soft bulges, the plant behind it stripped to bare woody stems and a few leaves.Week of 24 AugustTwo Bulgarian Carrot chilies on 27 August, hanging from the same jointed stem and both still smooth glossy mid-green, one grown to nearly twice the length of the other, with basil and marigolds crowding the row beyond them.Week of 24 AugustTwo Bulgarian Carrot chilies on 27 August, each tapering evenly from a broad shoulder to a sharp point and coloring tip-first — bright orange at the point, gold through the middle, still green up at the stem — on woody jointed stems.Week of 24 AugustTwo Bulgarian Carrot chilies on 28 August, blunt-tipped and banded in three colors at once — green at the shoulder, yellow across the middle, strong orange over the lower half — with small green ones still setting behind them on scarred pale stems.Week of 24 AugustA Bulgarian Carrot chili on 29 August, curved along its length to a fine point and gone one even deep orange end to end, with a second behind it still holding green at the shoulder and clover and mown grass beyond.Week of 24 AugustTwo Bulgarian Carrot chilies on 29 August, both gone a deep even orange and drawn to blunt points, with a small scarlet one further back at the right and basil crowding into the frame from the left over a pale stone path.Week of 31 AugustTwo Bulgarian Carrot chilies crossed in front of the camera on 3 September — a flat saturated orange end to end, no green and no red anywhere — hanging on a plant so nearly leafless that its bare stems show only corky old leaf scars.
