Californian Wonder Capsicum

Why I grow it

Sometimes you don't need a vegetable to be unusual — you just need it to be really useful. Californian Wonder is the classic blocky capsicum: thick-walled, sweet and crunchy, with fruit that can be picked green or left to ripen to a rich red. It's the sort of plant that earns its space because there are so many ways to use the harvest.

At a glance

Type: Sweet capsicum / bell pepper
Heat: None
Fruit: Large, blocky and thick-walled; green ripening to red
Position: Full sun, warm and sheltered
Growth: Bushy
Best for: Fresh eating, stuffing, roasting and cooking

In the kitchen

Pick the fruit green when it's crisp with that distinctive fresh capsicum flavour, or leave it on the plant to ripen red when it becomes sweeter.

Use it raw in salads and sandwiches, throw it into stir-fries, curries and pasta dishes, roast it until soft and sweet, or take advantage of those substantial hollow fruits and stuff the whole thing with whatever happens to need using up for dinner.

In the garden

Californian Wonder forms a bushy plant producing substantial block-shaped fruit. Like all capsicums, it appreciates warmth, so give it a sunny, sheltered position in the garden, greenhouse or a generous container.

The fruit can be harvested green, but leaving some on the plant longer allows them to develop their mature red colour and sweeter flavour.

Jo's growing tip

I like planting chillies and capsicums in pairs. Although their flowers are self-fertile, I've found plants grown together perform particularly well — they create a sheltered little growing pocket, physically support one another as they fill out, and give visiting pollinators plenty of flowers to move between.

Care

Grow in fertile, well-drained soil and water consistently, particularly once the plant begins flowering and setting fruit. Feed regularly during fruit production. Plants are naturally bushy but may appreciate some support once they're carrying a heavy crop. Protect from frost.

What you'll receive

One healthy, established seedling grown here at A Garden Between. Plants naturally vary in size and shape and may be supplied in reused nursery pots or growing bags — perfectly useful plastic doesn't need replacing simply because it doesn't match.