Kale or Flowering Cabbage for Long Lasting Colour

Saturday, July 19, 2008 03:45 AM

Flowering Kale and Flowering Cabbage are two plants that are becoming a favorite in my landscape.

I planted a few leftover seeds last year to try them out and was amazed at how beautiful these plants were throughout the entire season. They outlasted most of the annuals that either froze or finished their blooming time and added bright color to the landscape until they were covered with snow.

Flowering Kale and Cabbage do not produce flowers but have very attractive and decorative foliage. They look like one very large ruffled rose!

On many varieties the leaves are frilly and are very colorful. For example the Pink Flowering Cabbage has a pink center rosette with green veined outer leaves. The white has a creamy white center with dark green veined leaves and the Red has a deep red center with purple veined outer leaves. The foliage is similar to that of a Savoy Cabbage. The flowering Kale produces a looser leaved plant and the leaf are frillier than the cabbage. It comes in several colors such as red, rose or white centers and all have purple outer foliage. The plants are colorful throughout the season but as the temperatures become colder the plants colors become brighter from the frost.

Both of these plants are easy to grow and are planted in the same way you would plant the regular cabbage and kale. Start the seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before transplanting them outdoors. They tolerate frost very well and are a cool weather crop so you can plant them outdoors in the early spring and they will continue to look attractive until late fall making them a perfect annual for our area.( In the Vancouver area where winter temperatures are much warmer, gardeners plant them in the fall for a winter landscape.) They can either be planted as an accent plant or in a mass planting because of their uniformity in size and shape. Remember to space them 12-18 inches apart as they do become quite large.

I always like to try out new things in my garden and sometimes I only plant it once, whereas other times it becomes a favorite. Flowering Kale and Flowering Cabbage are annuals that I will continue to plant every year as it outlasts every other annual making it economical and it is also a very beautiful and unusual addition to any landscape.

Plants are still available at the garden centers and so if you have an empty space that needs filling in the landscape, why not try a flowering kale or cabbage!

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Garden Centres in Prince George,