Growing ornamental cabbage as a decoration and healthy vegetable

The advantages of ornamental cabbage, which is often called collard cabbage, include:

1. Unpretentiousness. Even a beginner can grow this plant, it is not difficult.
2. Frost resistance. Ornamental cabbage will decorate the plot even after the first snow, easily transferring the temperature to minus 10 degrees. When all the other bright plants have already faded, it is the ornamental cabbage that will remain in the flower bed, continuing to please the eye.
3. A variety of shapes and colors. There are several varieties of ornamental cabbage that differ in appearance. The combination of different varieties allows you to experiment with the design of flower beds.
4. Ornamental cabbage is considered a delicacy in France and is used to prepare healthy and tasty salads. The stem can be pickled, and the pieces of leaves can be thrown, for example, into a saucepan with boiled potatoes to get an unusual and tasty side dish. Young leaves of ornamental cabbage contain a lot of selenium, a natural immunomodulatory agent.

The most popular varieties of ornamental cabbage are:

Sunrise. Forms a rosette that looks very much like a blossoming rose.

Nagoya. Differs in terry, lace leaves, which begin to darken by autumn, acquiring a burgundy or dark crimson shade.

Plume motley white and red ornamental cabbage. Along with the Japanese variegated, which also has white and red shades, it is perfect for arranging flower beds, ridges and parterres. In height, these varieties can reach 80 centimeters..

You can also distinguish varieties such as Spoonbill, Purple dove, Blue giant, Green curly, coarseand branched.

1 – pink heron; 2 – Purple dove

Ornamental cabbage is planted with seeds. You can grow seedlings at home by planting seeds in March in flowerpots at a distance of about five centimeters from each other. To accurately get a sufficiently large number of seedlings, gardeners are advised to sow seeds two or three per hole, in order to then thin out and remove the weakest sprouts. In early May, the seedlings can be planted in the beds, they will withstand frosts down to minus 4 degrees.

If you have no desire to tinker with seedlings at home, then in the second decade of May you can plant seeds directly in open ground on prepared beds. Ornamental cabbage develops faster than white cabbage, the cultivation of which we have already written about. In the case of planting directly into open ground, ornamental cabbage will also have to be thinned out, leaving the strongest sprouts. The rest, if it’s a pity to throw it away, give it to neighbors or just transplant it to an empty place.

When choosing a place to plant ornamental cabbage, remember that it loves light. In partial shade, it will also take root well, but the color will turn out to be not so bright. This plant prefers sandy loam soils and loams, as well as soil rich in humus. If you are planting ready-made seedlings, then do it according to the 35×35 centimeters scheme, because some varieties are large in size. You can add a teaspoon of universal fertilizer to each hole for planting, or add compost to the soil in the fall.

It is not difficult to take care of ornamental cabbage: you will have to regularly water (but not flood) until the sprouts have grown – to break through the weeds and loosen the soil. In order for the leaves to form more intensively, fertilizers can be applied twice during the growth period, for example, diluted mullein, mineral additives or urea. Loves ornamental cabbage and soil mulching, so don’t forget about this.

Ornamental cabbage will begin to bloom, that is, to reveal all the beauty of its unusual leaves, in July, but all the bright colors will appear closer to autumn – the first frosts even increase the attractiveness of the plant.

For the winter, ornamental cabbage can be transplanted into a flowerpot so that it continues to decorate your home, and tender and tasty salad leaves are always at hand. In addition, if you decide to collect seeds yourself, then remember that this can be done in the second year, because ornamental cabbage is a biennial plant. Therefore, for the winter, individual inflorescences will also need to be transplanted into pots and transferred to a warm place. Although some gardeners leave ornamental cabbage in the beds in the winter, claiming that this way it will better release inflorescences in the second year.

The pests of ornamental cabbage are the same as those of white cabbage, including cabbage flies, so measures should be taken similar, there are no peculiarities.

Young leaves of ornamental cabbage are eaten, they can be frozen for the winter, stewed, eaten fresh, preserved. An unusual appearance, ease of care and cultivation, benefits and a pleasant taste can make ornamental cabbage a favorite of your personal plot..