Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 22 JuneA Ristra Cayenne on 23 June, two creamy-white bells hanging off sharply hooked stalks with their petals curled right back, and between them the first fruit, a slim pale green cone tapering to a point, in flat shadowless overcast.Week of 22 JuneA Ristra Cayenne on 25 June, one white flower nodding off a bent stalk halfway up the stem and a second just opening beside it, its long-tipped leaves drooping away from the stems, with more of the same plant at every size behind it in flat overcast.Week of 29 JuneA Ristra Cayenne pepper on 29 June, two pods hanging straight down side by side four or five times longer than they are wide, each creased lengthwise and hooked at the tip, with a dark treeline out of focus behind them in strong side sun.Week of 6 JulyRistra Cayenne II peppers on 6 July, five or six pods hanging point-down off stalks hooked hard over, each tapering from a broad shoulder and undulating along its length, the whole plant beaded and streaked with rain under flat overcast.Week of 6 JulyRistra Cayenne II peppers on 7 July, two long pods hanging straight down off thick pale stalks — one running almost dead straight to a hooked tip, the other curled right round into a closed ring — with rain running down both in streaks.Week of 6 JulyA Ristra Cayenne pepper on 9 July shot into the morning sun so the upper leaves glow through — six matte green pods hanging beneath, the largest bent right round into a creased hook with a small brown-ringed hole bored clean through its shoulder.Week of 6 JulyRistra Cayenne II chilies on 12 July, five or six long dark pods rippled with shallow creases and one among them stunted, fat and lobed, with kaolin clay laid on thick enough to hide the leaves and dried in round spots on the pods themselves.Week of 13 JulyA Ristra Cayenne II chili on 13 July held up against a gloved hand for scale, the longest pod curving down past the wrist to a blunt hooked tip, kaolin-spotted and beaded with water under flat gray overcast, an outbuilding blurred behind.Week of 13 JulyA Ristra Cayenne II chili on 16 July, its thin woody stems arching outward under five or six long pods that taper to a blunt curled tip, small creamy flowers still opening higher up, the whole plant standing against a flat white overcast sky.Week of 13 JulyRistra Cayenne II chilies on 16 July, five or six long green pods hanging straight down in one cluster and one of them wavy along its whole length, a clean round bore hole in another, all beaded with water under flat gray overcast.Week of 20 JulyRistra Cayenne II peppers on 20 July, five or six slender horns crossing each other tip-down and rippled the length of every one, the leaf beneath them white to its edges with kaolin clay pooled along the veins, one small domed beetle clinging above.Week of 20 JulyA Ristra Cayenne II pepper on 23 July, long enough to overhang an open palm at both ends and hooked in a broad curve, cradled from underneath by a bare hand, with a dozen more still hanging green on the plant behind it in hard sun.Week of 27 JulyRistra Cayenne II chilies on 30 July, a dozen slender pods kinked into loose S-shapes with the July kaolin still on them in hard-edged runs exactly where the droplets dried, and one leaf above coated pale enough to pass for variegation, in hard midday sun.Week of 3 AugustRistra Cayenne II pods on 4 August, a dozen hanging sinuous and kinked from the leaf axils, one gone scarlet under a dull brown-olive cast and sunken along one flank, with a chalky white spray residue streaked thickest along the leaf veins.Week of 3 AugustRistra Cayenne II on 5 August, a curtain of pendant pods seen from underneath, one among them ripened out of sequence and curled to a full hook, olive at the shoulder through maroon to scarlet along its inner curve, one round insect hole at the bend.Week of 3 AugustRistra Cayenne II on 7 August, a dozen long crooked pods hanging in a curtain and every one beaded with water, one halfway over with scarlet across its top half and dark bronze below it, another already fully orange-red, under flat overcast.Week of 17 AugustRistra Cayenne chilies on 17 August, a curtain of them hanging long and hooked, one turned comma-curved scarlet at the front and one behind mottling to amber under so many raised blisters that they cannot be told from the rain on them.Week of 24 AugustRistra Cayenne chilies on 25 August, two gone brilliant scarlet — one hanging straight, one sweeping into an S with a hooked tail — while a green one above has curled right round on itself into a closed ring, all of them wet from rain.Week of 31 AugustThree Ristra Cayenne chilies on 31 August, deep glossy scarlet and gently rippled along their length, each curving to a fine point with its green calyx and stalk still attached, laid on a white cloth beside a grill grate.Week of 31 AugustRistra Cayenne chilies on 3 September, long and slender and hanging in a tangle over one another, several already scarlet and several still bright green, with two caught partway between in a dull bronze.Week of 7 SeptemberSix Ristra Cayenne II chiles hang stem-up from one bound cluster against a cream interior wall on 7 September, all of them drying — close transverse puckering across the width, the skin stretched pale orange and gold over every wrinkle, two tips curled hard.Week of 7 SeptemberRistra Cayenne II peppers on 11 September, one glossy scarlet pod at left chewed down to a skeleton while a long center pod shades from olive shoulder to brown-red tip. Late sun rakes in from the right.Week of 7 SeptemberRistra Cayenne II peppers on 12 September, two dozen pods strung on cotton twine, the newest still glossy scarlet while the darker ones wrinkle crosswise as they begin to collapse. Soft indoor daylight from the left casts the whole string in shadow on the wall.Week of 21 SeptemberRistra Cayenne II peppers tied by their stems to twine on 25 September, the center pods still glossy scarlet while the bundle at right has shriveled to dark brick, transversely wrinkled and leathery. Soft indoor light from the upper left.
