The Most Unusual Seeds At Seeds N Such

Just because everyone else is growing the standard vegetables, herbs, and flowers doesn’t mean that you have to be. Show off your quirky personality or your aptitude for the exotic with the following unusual seeds. Some of the strangest plants are the most enjoyable to harvest!

From the Mexican Sour Cucumber to the Turkish Orange to the Italian Chioggia Beet, we have a variety from nearly every corner of the world. Try your hand at growing these treasured heirlooms and improved hybrids, and your garden will be the talk of the town! 

15 unique seeds you’ve never seen before

While you might be familiar with a couple of these varieties, we'd bet money that you’re about to meet a few you haven’t heard of. 

1. Medusa Pepper

   One look at this fiery plant and you’ll understand where she got her name. Red, orange, and yellow peppers reach towards the sky, slithering like snakes. While you might be too intimidated to harvest the serpentine chiles (and rightfully so), Medusa is much more bark than bite. The colorful, edible peppers have a heat rating comparably to poblano peppers—hardly spicy at all. 

   Whether you grow Medusa as an ornamental, edible, or a bit of both, the frightening peppers are sure to be the talking point of the town. 

2. Lemon Cucumber

   Getting bored with regular slicing cucumbers? Give this heirloom a try. The climbing vines produce bright, lemon-colored fruits that are a favorite with old-timers and children alike. Lemon Cucumber vines mature 65 days from transplanting, and the tiny cukes are tastiest at about two inches across. Eat them raw or turn them into colorful pickles–either way, you’re sure to surprise a few folks with this exotic cucumber variety. 

3. Turkish Orange

   The round, orange ribbed fruits might put one in mind of miniature pumpkins or even tomatoes, but Turkish Orange is actually an exotic eggplant native to Africa! Maturing 80 days from transplanting, Turkish Orange is a prolific variety with fruits as beautiful as they are delicious.

4. Mexican Sour Cucumber

   Baby watermelon or weird cucumber? While technically a cucumber, you could easily convince your neighbors that you got hold of a rare miniature melon.

   Mexican Sour Gherkins–affectionately called cucamelons–are native to Mexico and Central America. A rare heirloom, the prolific vines produce grape-sized cucumbers with a thin skin reminiscent of a watermelon rind. Mexican Sour Cucumbers are harvestable 65 days from transplanting and taste like a zingy, citrus-flavored cucumber and are a fun addition to salads or a vegetable tray. 

5. Watermelon Radish

   While we’re on the subject of watermelon, bet you didn’t know that there’s a red-meat radish that’s nearly as refreshing as an iced melon on a hot summer’s day. The round roots have a creamy green-colored skin but give way to punch-colored flesh. Sweet, crisp radishes are excellent atop a salad or even roasted with other root vegetables. 

6. North Georgia Candy Roaster

   Skip the traditional pumpkin pie for a candy roaster-filled delicacy this winter–you won’t regret it. Native to the Southeast and cultivated by the Cherokee for generations, the candy roaster is an unusually shaped winter squash with honey-sweet orange flesh. Nearly 100 days from transplanting, the vigorous vines produce large fruits with a long shelf life to get you through a bitter winter. 

7. Red Peter Hot Pepper

   This conical pepper speaks for itself and is one of the most unusual seeds we carry here at Seeds N Such! The elongated pods are ready to harvest when the peppers ripen from green to red and reach between four and six inches long. Grow this fun variety for laughs or to spice up dinner–but be cautious! This phallic-shaped pepper doesn’t mess around but packs heat comparable to a serrano pepper.

8. Chioggia Beet

   Make gardening (and eating vegetables) even more fun with this unique Italian heirloom! The two-inch roots alternate between red and white rings for a beautiful vegetable as symmetrical and sweet as a peppermint stick. Roots mature in 55 days, but the young tops make a delicious and nutritious spinach substitute. 

9. Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato 

   Usually, green fruit signals an immature tomato, but yellow and green striations on this beefsteak type suggest Aunt Ruby’s tomatoes are at peak maturity. Indeterminate vines produce 12 to 16-ounce fruits that reveal a gorgeous green interior when sliced.

10. Eight Ball Hybrid Zucchini

    Our earliest and easiest zucchini to grow, this award-winning hybrid matures 37 days from transplanting. Compact plants produce tasty, round fruits ideal for small spaces, making harvesting a breeze. 

11. Mashed Potatoes Winter Squash

    No joke, this ivory-colored squash has the texture and taste of mashed potatoes when cooked. The productive vines produce three to four one-pound fruits in about 100 days. You won’t believe how low-calorie and nutritious this squash is, making it the perfect healthy substitute for your favorite comfort food. 

12. Kossak Hybrid Kohlrabi

    Is it a cabbage, a turnip, or a bit of both? The German word kohlrabi literally translates to “cabbage-turnip,” so you’re not wrong either way. A member of the brassica plant family, kohlrabi is a sweet and versatile vegetable harvested for its bulbous stem. Raw kohlrabi is an excellent addition to salads, but you can also cook kohlrabi in every imaginable way to add a crisp, sweet texture to any meal.

13. Mad Hatter Hybrid Pepper

    These whimsical, three-lobed peppers could pass for fairy hats. This award-winning hybrid variety is a type of Scotch Bonnet pepper but is surprisingly mild, with less heat than a poblano pepper. Mad Hatter Peppers are known for producing prolific harvests of sweet fruits that ripen from green to red.

14. Caerulea

    While this alien flower might look like it belongs on Mars, Caerulea is really native to South America. Also called passiflora or passionflower, Caerulea has adapted well to the Southeastern United States and other regions of the world and is winter hardy down to zone 6. Cream-colored buds open to reveal a ring of fridges with blue, white, and brown bands. The fragrant flowers give way to orange berries that, though bland, are edible. 

15. Peppermint Stick Zinnia

    Fully double blooms are marked with bold stripes of color, contrasted with lighter patches. Among the hardiest and most productive zinnia varieties, Peppermint stick is ideal for cut flower arrangements and border plantings.

Conclusion

Spice up your garden this season with these 15 unusual seeds. Show off your green thumb and give the neighbors a good laugh with these bizarre-looking plants. Nature is amazing, is it not?