There are different kinds of peppers. We have both the Brazilian and the California. Overall I like the California better. The messy red berries tend to happen more with the Brazilian than the California. There can be red berries on the California but there aren’t as much. The Brazilian does look beautiful when it is full of red berries though. The Brazilian also has suckers that pop up from the root system constantly that you either have to live with or keep under control. We ended up having to do hardscape to deal with a lot of those suckers and that took care of most of the problem except for the ones directly on or right around the tree. They are both considered messy trees but honestly it depends where you put it whether that’s a big deal for you or not. It also depends what kind of landscaping you have. Our Californias drops lot of little leaves but they are in the back and drop them into bark…big deal.
Apparently some posters here don’t like them. But look around, they are gorgeous and obviously used a lot in CA. My neighbor has a 30+ year old California pepper that is absolutely to die for gorgeous. I have no problem with 1/4 of that tree hanging over my fence and yes, the little leaves drop into my yard and I don’t care. The beauty outweighs the little mess. People don’t plant enough trees in CA neighborhoods anymore and frankly it makes the neighborhood ugly, LOL! There are a lot of CA houses that aren’t that great looking but put them on a tree lined street and the street looks beautiful.
