The new danger is idiots at Lowe’s Garden Center who mislabel the plants in the pots. I bought what I thought was a mild Hungarian wax pepper plant. These things sort of look like wax peppers, but they are infinitely hotter (which came as an unwelcome surprise the first time I used one). Next time I could get one of these dragon pepper plants by mistake.
Peppers are notorious for crossing...my wife cut up some ‘benign’ Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers for dinner last night, and wound up with ‘burning hands’. Dinner was spicy. There are super-hots elsewhere on the property. Damn bumblebees. :-)
I had some peppers that I grew from seed thinking they would be hot like their parents.
They turned out mild but very tasty.
If you have really good soil and they get lots of water you will have a larger milder pepper.
If the soil is poor and there less water you will get a smaller hotter pepper.
Your mileage may vary but that is what happens in my garden.
I bought some Anaheim and jalapeno seed packages from Burpee. Those were the hottest things ever. Even hubby (Mr. Bring it on I can take anything!) couldn't take them. I don't think they were jalapenos. Those seeds also grew some peter peppers. It was a bit shocking to have uh, hmm, "peters" growing in the garden. Someone had fun mixing seeds at the factory.