Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 18 MayA Cherry Stuffer pepper just set out on 24 May, already carrying two buds at its first fork — the lower a round cream-yellow one sitting in its green cup, the upper still green with a pale tip only just breaking through the calyx.Week of 15 JuneA Cherry Stuffer pepper on 18 June, one squat green fruit tucked behind a leaf at mid-height, shouldered and shallowly dimpled across the top, with creamy-white buds hanging pointed above it and rain still beaded over every leaf.Week of 29 JuneCherry Stuffer peppers on 29 June, three of them stepping down the frame as wide as they are tall with a broad flat shoulder and shallow ribbing, the topmost still wearing its withered calyx as a ragged tan collar, hard sun streaking every skin.Week of 6 JulyCherry Stuffer peppers on 6 July sitting upright on stout stalks instead of hanging, the calyx clasped up under each flattened globe, and above them one leaf gone more than half cream where the variegation ran away with the blade.Week of 6 JulyCherry Stuffer peppers on 9 July, ten of them in twos and threes at the branch forks — each a flattened green globe on a stout stalk with the calyx lobes splayed right back beneath it — one still wearing its withered flower while more open among them.Week of 13 JulySix or seven Cherry Stuffer peppers on 17 July, squat globes wider than they are tall held out on short thick stalks, one with a broad shallow crease down its side and a dry brown nub where the flower fell, all freshly wet in bright hazy light.Week of 20 JulyCherry Stuffer peppers on 20 July, three sitting upright on their stalks with the calyx underneath, one still green and beaded with water and one gone scarlet across the top half, blending down through bronze to olive, a branch held aside at the edge.Week of 20 JulyCherry Stuffer peppers on 21 July, sitting upright on their stalks instead of hanging, and one among the green has gone scarlet — a flattened globe under a film of rain, streaked with fine whitish scratch lines and creased by a shallow suture down one side.Week of 20 JulyCherry Stuffer peppers on 21 July, two squat buttons wider than they are tall and ripened deep red with olive-bronze still on the shoulders, and over the red an opaque milky film in dried runs, thickest where the droplets pooled before drying.Week of 3 AugustCherry Stuffer peppers on 3 August, each ribbed into pumpkin lobes with a dark point at the crown and standing upright on its stalk, four still green while two have gone maroon-red over purple-brown, chalky splash marks dried hard-edged across them.Week of 3 AugustCherry Stuffer peppers on 4 August, three stages on one bush and all held upright on swollen stalks, one a deep crimson flattened globe blushed paler across the shoulder, one dull rose over dark green, the lowest still green and plainly three-lobed.Week of 3 AugustCherry Stuffer peppers on 6 August, one flattened globe fully ripe and beaded with water, deep scarlet with a slight waist and a dimpled top among green ones of the same squat shape, and off to the side one slim egg-yolk pod from another variety.Week of 24 AugustA Cherry Stuffer pepper on 26 August, sitting upright on its stalk rather than hanging, deeply ribbed and glossy red under a film of dew, with a second already red beside it, a third still turning, and purple lettuce behind.
