Ornamental cabbage: description, varieties, cultivation and care, reviews

Ornamental cabbage is no different in care from a regular table crop and can be eaten. Its main feature is bright, unusually colored leaves and rosettes resembling large flowers or ornamental trees. You can learn more about the varieties and methods of growing ornamental cabbage from this article.

Decorative cabbage

Ornamental cabbage is a biennial plant

Ornamental cabbage blooms until frost

Botanical description

Ornamental cabbage is classified as headless cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. Acephala), also called Brassica. Belongs to the cruciferous family. Biennial plant. In the first year, the leaves develop, forming a loose head or rosette; in the second year, the plant blooms and bears fruit.

The shape of ornamental cabbage leaves can be:

solid and flat;
pinnately dissected;
corrugated;
with fringed edge;
with a curly edge.

The plant acquires the following colors:

green on the lower leaves and white on the central ones;
green on the lower ones and red-purple on the central ones;
bright outer edge of the leaf and green in its central part;
purple, pink, white central part and green edge of leaves;
multi-colored leaves with contrasting veins.

The plant acquires a bright color when the temperature drops below +10 °C.

Cabbage can “bloom” in open ground until frosts of -12 °C, and after being moved to an unheated room - until mid-winter.

Popular varieties

"Kai and Gerda" Belongs to group 1, the stems are rough and have a height of 60 cm, the leaves are pale in color.

The lark's tongue." The leaves are in most cases dark in color, with carved edges.

"Red High" It differs from other varieties in its large diameter, up to 70 cm. The leaves are located along the entire length of the stem and have a purple tint.

Red Bor - has a stem height of about 80 cm. The leaves are bright red.

"Robin". The diameter can be up to 40 cm, height up to one and a half meters. Color from red to violet. Copes well with low temperatures.

"Colors of the East". One of the latest options. The rosette is grayish-green, turning into a purple hue. It easily tolerates light frosts and resists pests well.

"Green branchy." The stem of this variety reaches 70 cm. The color of the leaves is purple, pink, violet, blue, etc. It has a completely different shape, round, flattened, etc.

Historical data

Ancient Greece is considered the historical homeland of this type of cabbage. Here there was a special attitude towards the plant, since it was believed that the growth of the vegetable was provoked by drops of sweat from the god Jupiter.

Japanese breeders have made a lot of improvements in the variety of appearance of ornamental plants. Already in the middle of the 18th century, more than 200 varieties were bred here. Unusual-looking cabbage decorated the gardens of wealthy Japanese. Ornamental cabbage is widespread in European countries. In our country, it is just beginning to gain the attention of gardeners.

Where is it used and can it be eaten?

Ornamental cabbage is used in landscape design.

It can be planted:

as part of compositions with flower plants - they form a contrasting spot against the background of other flowers and tall plants;
as living borders - planted along paths and enclosing flower beds;
in flowerpots and hanging flower pots – you can grow both individual plants and groups;
as a single plant - completely plant the space with only ornamental cabbage;
as part of compositions from different varieties - creating multi-colored patterns;
in alpine slides - you can use both high and low varieties.

You can create original bouquets from Brassica. To do this, it is cut off at the root and placed in a vase with a small amount of water. To make the bouquet last longer, add a few crystals of potassium permanganate or 1 tsp to the water. sugar and a pinch of salt per 1 liter of water. Change the water 2 times a week, and the bouquet will last about a month.

In floristry, decorative cabbage is used to create vegetable bouquets.

Most often, ornamental cabbage was grown as a fodder plant, but it is quite edible, like cabbage or cauliflower. The leaves are rich in vitamins and can be a good source of them in winter.

A peculiarity of ornamental cabbage is that the leaves lose their bitter taste after the first frost.

Benefits for immunity

This is another reason to get to know this cruciferous vegetable, and in a more specific way than just learning what the little cabbage is called. The beneficial properties can be described for a very long time. Moreover, you are unlikely to be able to put an end to this list. Brussels sprouts are very useful during the recovery period after illness. It has a positive effect on the condition of the whole body, increases immunity, and has a positive effect on the functioning of the pancreas.

There is great news for vegetarians, as well as for those who follow a healthy lifestyle and simply want to lose weight. The broth prepared on the basis of this vegetable is not inferior in its nutritional properties to chicken broth. It is very useful to consume fresh cabbage juice. To do this, it is usually mixed with carrot juice. This is very useful for diabetes and pancreatic dysfunction.

Landing dates, place and conditions

Ornamental cabbage belongs to the mid-season and late-ripening groups of plants. The growing season lasts from 140 to 160 days. Rosettes of colored leaves form in August and persist until October, in some varieties until November.

The site for its planting must be selected taking into account the late “flowering” period. First, early and annual flowers should bloom, and cabbage should not cover them. It can be planted along the fence or left in pots and then transferred to a flower bed.

Brasseca loves open areas and semi-shaded areas. The soil it prefers is loam and sandy loam soil. Like any cabbage, ornamental varieties do not like acidic soil.

When growing in open ground, the site should be prepared in the fall:

Application of fertilizing. 3 kg of compost, 50 g of superphosphate, 20 g of ammonium sulfate and 20 g of potassium chloride. Distribute the mixture over 1 square. m of land.
Digging. Dig up the flowerbed.
Watering. Moisturize well.
Shelter. Cover the area with polyethylene or other insulating material so that the applied fertilizers rot well.

In the spring, remove the covering material and dig and loosen the soil well.

From nature itself

What does a little cabbage give to our body? What is the name of the diet in which it is recommended to eat it daily? Let's understand these remarkable facts. In spring and autumn, many of us remember vitamin complexes, which are important for maintaining immunity. What do we do next? That's right, let's go to the pharmacy. And it’s completely in vain, because a product like Brussels sprouts contains almost all known vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Moreover, these are precisely those natural compounds that do not cause an overdose, are easily absorbed and are only beneficial, unlike chemical ones from the pharmacy.

Sowing ornamental cabbage for seedlings

There are 2 ways to grow cabbage for seedlings. Whichever one you choose, you will have to take into account some nuances.

Tips for growing seedlings

Being a cold-tolerant plant, cabbage will react negatively to heat rather than cold. Keep this in mind if you want to grow seedlings in a hot apartment. In such conditions it is better to wait until April or May. During these periods, you can still grow seedlings, although March-April is considered the ideal time.

After the first shoots appear, on about the 5th day, the container with the seedlings should be moved to a cool place and provided with good lighting for 12-15 hours a day. Otherwise, the plants will become very tall. Phytolamps are used to illuminate seedlings. If it is not possible to provide lighting to the seedlings, it is better to wait until the day naturally increases.

Ornamental cabbage seedlings are often affected by fungal diseases, so the seed and soil should be disinfected before planting:

the soil is calcined in the oven;
after cooling, treat with Fitosporin;
in a damp-wet state, the soil is left for several hours;
the seeds are soaked for 3-4 hours in a solution of Fitosporin or kept for 20 minutes in water at a temperature of 50 ° C, and then in a solution of potassium permanganate.

After these steps, you can begin sowing. Granulated, purchased seeds can be planted immediately without additional processing.

With a pick

This method is used if you need to grow a large amount of seedling material.

Sequence of work:

Fill the containers with soil. Its thickness should be at least 5 cm. Lightly compact it.
Make grooves 0.5-1 cm deep. There should be a distance of 3 cm between the grooves.
Place the seeds in grooves 1 cm apart. To do this, it is convenient to use a match or a toothpick.
Fill the grooves with soil and compact it slightly so that there are no air pockets inside.
Moisten the soil. Make sure it is damp but not puddling.
Create a greenhouse. To do this, cover the container with polyethylene and secure it with an elastic band around the perimeter.
Place the seedlings in a warm place. The temperature should be within +18-+24 °C. Light doesn't really matter at this stage.

If the work is carried out correctly, there is no need to water the cabbage before picking. After the first true leaves appear, after about 8-12 days, the cabbage is picked:

Prepare the required number of pots with a volume of 250 ml and fill them with soil mixture treated with Fitosporin.
Holes 2-3 cm deep are made in the ground.
Each sprout is dug out with a small spatula, along with a lump of earth, and transferred to pots.
Plants are deepened down to the cotyledon leaves. The earth around is being compacted.
Plants are watered by spraying with warm water.
Seedlings need to be fed before transplanting into the soil with liquid vermicompost or Agricola fertilizer. The procedure is carried out:
on day 28;
before planting in the ground.
10 days before planting in a flower bed, the seedlings are hardened off. First, they open the window, and then take it out onto the street or balcony. Start with 30 minutes, gradually increasing this time to the whole day.

Without picking

It involves sowing seeds directly into separate pots:

Prepare the required number of pots and fill them with prepared soil.
Holes up to 1 cm deep are made in the soil (1 pot - 1 hole).
Place 2-5 seeds in each hole and cover with soil.
The pots are covered with polyethylene, creating greenhouse conditions.
After germination, weak shoots are removed, cutting them off close to the ground with sharp thin scissors (you can use nail scissors), leaving one of the healthiest seedlings.

Planting ornamental cabbage in open ground

The optimal temperature for transplantation is considered to be +14-+18 °C. The soil should warm up to +8-+10 °C.

Cabbage can withstand night frosts down to -4 °C without harm.

At the time of transfer to the ground, the plant should develop 2-3 pairs of true leaves. The transplant is carried out together with a clod of earth, so the seedling will take root better.

Work order:

Prepare the wells . Planting pattern 25x40 cm. Pour 1 tsp into each hole. complex fertilizer and ash.
Transfer. Transfer each seedling to a separate hole. They deepen it to the cotyledon leaves and cover it with earth, slightly compacting it.
Shelter. The seedlings are covered with agrofibre until the plant takes root.

Delicious soup

First courses with this vegetable are an absolute favorite. It's simple, fast, tasty and nutritious. Preparation will not take more than 30 minutes. For a small saucepan you will need 300 g of potatoes and 100 g of carrots, onions and 200 g of Brussels sprouts, herbs and sour cream.

The potatoes go into the pan first. It must first be cut into strips and washed. Carrots and onions are lightly sautéed in a frying pan and then added to the boiling broth. The last thing to throw in is the cabbage. Now add salt and spices, let it simmer for 5 minutes and turn it off. Do not try to boil the heads of cabbage. The cabbage should be fairly firm and crispy.

Planting cabbage from seeds

Ornamental cabbage seeds can be purchased at a specialty store or collected from the garden.

How to collect seeds?

Cabbage produces an arrow in which the seeds ripen in the 2nd year of life. Only the best rosettes are selected for seeds. To collect them:

In the fall, dig up the cabbage by the roots from the garden bed;
remove the lower leaves;
bury leaves up to the leaves in a container with wet sand;
store in this condition until spring in a well-ventilated, cool and dry place;
in the spring, transplant the rosette into the ground;

To improve pollination, plant cabbage plants close to each other.

in June the cabbage will begin to shoot arrows;
the seeds in the pods will ripen by November;
When they are well dry, cut them off and thresh them.

To prevent birds from eating the seeds, the arrows are tied with cloth.

Sowing in greenhouse conditions

Before sowing seedlings in a greenhouse, first prepare the soil:

mix the soil from the site, peat and sand so that the layer thickness is 10 cm;
disinfect this substrate.

Next, sow the seeds:

moisten the soil well, but do not flood it;
make small depressions in the ground;
Place 2-3 seeds in each hole;
sprinkle them with earth;
you can cover the bed with polyethylene to increase the temperature;
after germination, remove the cover;
carry out loosening and watering.

When the plants have 2-3 true leaves, you can transfer the seedlings to open ground.

Sowing in open ground

"Brassica" can be sown immediately in open ground. It is better to do this in late April-early May. In unfavorable weather conditions, temporary shelter should be provided.

Work order:

Preparation. Loosen the soil well.
Watering. Moisten the soil with hot water with the addition of potassium permanganate, this will also serve as disinfection;
Holes or grooves. Make small holes up to 1.5 cm deep at a distance of 15 cm from each other; you can make grooves of the same depth.
Sowing. Place seeds in each groove at a distance of 5 cm from each other, or 1-3 seeds in each hole and cover with soil.
Shelter. Cover each hole with a cut bottle. Install arcs along the rows and stretch the film over them.
In cold weather, seedlings can wait up to 2-3 weeks.
Removing cover. When the sprouts hatch, the cover must be removed.
Watering. Start after the true leaf appears. During watering, alternate the solution of Fitosporin and complex fertilizer.
Thinning. Thin out the seedlings as they grow, leaving the strongest ones.
Transfer. After 2-3 true leaves appear, the plants can be moved to a permanent location.

How to care for ornamental cabbage?

Even a novice gardener can handle caring for ornamental cabbage.

Watering

Ornamental cabbage varieties need to be watered in a timely manner. To do this, 10 liters of water moisten 1 square meter. m of soil. In stable hot weather, watering is carried out every day in the morning or evening.

Cabbage grown in containers is watered abundantly in the morning or evening, and also sprayed to reduce evaporation.

Loosening

After watering, the soil needs to be loosened, thus improving air exchange in the root zone and roots. Carry out the procedure once every 7 days.

In addition to loosening, carry out hilling. Rake the soil under each bush. This way you can prevent the grown cabbage rosette from falling over, which becomes too heavy to stay on the stem.

Weeding

Periodically weed flower beds with ornamental cabbage. It is best to combine it with watering and loosening - it is easier to remove weeds along with the roots from wet, loose soil.

The flowerbed can be mulched with any suitable material: sawdust, straw, shavings, mown grass, dried weeds. Thereby reducing the number of watering, weeding and loosening.

Fertilizer

You need to feed ornamental cabbage 3 times per season:

2 weeks after planting. Add a solution of urea (30 g per 1 sq. m) or mullein (diluted in water 1 to 10). Nitrogen fertilizers are used with caution, as they help increase green mass, but impair the decorativeness of plants.
In 3-4 weeks. Nitroammofoska (10 g for each plant) or Azofoska solution (30 g diluted in 0.5 liters of water) is embedded in the soil.
After another 3-4 weeks, repeat the 2nd feeding.

On poor soils, fertilizing is applied 4-5 times per season.

Snack salad

It is perfect for any dinner, meat or fish dish, and will also become a self-sufficient dish. Of course you'll need some small cabbage. The beneficial properties of this vegetable are complemented by its high protein content, which is why it can become an alternative to animal products.

So, you will need 500 g of green heads. They need to be cut in half and boiled in salted water for about 10 minutes. Separately, you need to boil 200 g of potatoes, cut them and add them to the total mass. Additional ingredients may include onion and salt, pepper and oil.

Diseases, pests and prevention

Brassica can be affected by diseases and pests, just like table cabbage.

The most common diseases can be caused by:

Excessive watering. Never allow the soil to become waterlogged and do not use cold water. Otherwise, there is a danger of developing powdery mildew and root rot.
Excessive nitrogen fertilization. Increases susceptibility to disease.
Acidic soil. Becomes the cause of clubroot development. If necessary, deoxidize the soil with lime or dolomite flour.

If infection cannot be avoided:

at the initial stage, you can use the fungicides Fundazol, Quadris, Tiovit Jet;
in case of severe damage, the rosettes should be removed from the garden bed.

Of the pests, ornamental cabbage is most often affected by:

butterflies and caterpillars of cutworms and white moths;
cruciferous flea beetle;
aphids;
slugs.

You can use the following tools and methods:

insecticides Aktara, Bicol, Decis Profi;
spraying the planting every 10-14 days with an infusion of tobacco dust (infuse 2 cups per 5 liters of water for 24 hours) with the addition of a few tablespoons of liquid soap;
pollinate plants with ash with the addition of tobacco dust;
plant a flowerbed with marigolds or other strong-smelling plants;
mulch with pine needles;
collect slugs and caterpillars by hand or lay out special traps.

Reproduction

Ornamental cabbage propagates only by seeds, but the plant should not be classified as a hybrid. Hybrid seeds collected at home do not retain their color and decorative characteristics. Harvested seeds can be stored for 5 years.

High-quality seed of hybrids can be purchased from the following companies:

Gavrish;
Russian vegetable garden;
Aelita;
Search;
SeDek.

What ornamental cabbage is, as well as how to care for it, can be found out while watching the video:

Reviews

★★★★★
Svetlana, 35 years old. Every year I sow ornamental cabbage.
First, I sow in a greenhouse at the end of April or beginning of May, depending on the weather, and grow seedlings. After transferring it to the flowerbed, I always treat it with Intavir. To be honest, I don’t really like the plant, of course, in the fall - it’s gorgeous, but all summer it doesn’t present any beauty and you can’t cover it with other plants so that it doesn’t stretch out. ★★★★★
Tamara, 43 years old. I plant Brassica from time to time.
For those who want to experiment, I can say that the caterpillars eat it with the same appetite as regular food, so you need to keep an eye on it so that the beauty does not end up in holes. But with the onset of cold weather, it can be forgiven for all the additional treatments - the flowers have already faded, the caterpillars have hidden, and the cabbage “blooms” in all shades. This is simply the queen of autumn. ★★★★★
Maria, 28 years old. Last year I sowed ornamental cabbage directly into a flower bed with annual flowers.
And it was my mistake - over time it “strangled” all the flowers, and by the end of summer it was eaten by slugs. I had to remove it without waiting for the beauty. This year I bought seedlings right away - beautiful plants, already bright. I planted it at the end of May, and since June, it has become all overgrown with arrows and strange flowers. Disappointed. Hide

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Growing and caring for ornamental cabbage is no different from ordinary cabbage. You will have to grow seedlings, monitor soil moisture, weed, and fight pests and diseases. But, with a little patience and choosing a suitable place, from the beginning of autumn until frost, you can enjoy the variety of colors of luxurious rosettes.

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origin of name

Quite a long time ago, back in the 18th century, an unknown plant was discovered near Brussels. It is difficult to say why the researcher was interested in it, but it was this find that gave rise to a new species. It was still not at all like the modern small cabbage. At that time no one knew what it was called. However, in honor of the people of Brussels, it received its name, which it continues to bear today. This is an interesting fact, because researchers and breeders did not perpetuate their names in the name of the new plant.