2007’s First Chilli
Woke up this morninga nd struggled down to get a coffee and noticed that the first flower had dropped off. Thought “bugger, the shaking didn’t work” as when they don’t pollenate the flowers just all drop off and get me in trouble for messy bits being all over the window sills. But then I looked more closely, and lo and behold, the first chilli of the year is starting to take shape!
It’s weird how they grow though. As soon as the flowers are pollenated the ring of petals sort of fall off to leave the long stamen-y thing of the flower attached to the little growing chilli. That normally falls off sometime a bit later. Sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes the petal ring gets a bit stuck and sticks around the growing chilli like a tu-tu and I have to go around pulling them off. Gardener’s work is never done…