Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso pepper on 6 June, half a dozen broad blades spread flat out over the bench in every direction, deep glossy green and quilted into blisters between veins sunk deep in the tissue, in flat indoor daylight from overhead.Week of 15 JuneA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso pepper on 19 June, one closed bud standing erect in the first fork of the stem with its sepal lobes still pointed shut, the largest leaves reaching out level over the soil and the youngest in a tight head at the tip.Week of 22 JuneA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso pepper on 23 June, eight or nine broad leaves lying out flat almost to the corners of the frame with rain still running in a line down one midrib, and two or three ribbed green buds standing erect at the crown, in flat overcast.Week of 22 JuneA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso on 24 June, its broad leaves rippling strongly along every margin and quilted between the veins, one at the top crumpled right into folds, and pale buds nested among the youngest growth at the tip, in hard midday sun.Week of 20 JulyA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso pepper on 21 July, one cream flower face-on with seven rounded lobes each creased down the middle and a knot of pale anthers inside, the big blue-green leaf below it bearing small angular tan lesions, one stopped dead at a vein.Week of 31 AugustA Quadrato d'Asti Rosso sitting square-shouldered in the fork of its own stems on 3 September, still wholly green — the sunlit face bright, the shaded flank dropped to near-black — with hard sun coming through the leaves behind until they read translucent.
