Decorative cabbage is an unpretentious beautiful plant that can become a true decoration of the summer cottage in the fall, up to the very cold and snow.
This interesting plant has many varieties. She has many varieties, differing in their color and shape of inflorescences.
In our article you will learn the origin and characteristics of this beautiful and unpretentious plant. We will tell you how to grow and propagate decorative cabbage, how to care for it. You can also watch a useful video.
What is this "flower" and why is it used in landscape design?
Ornamental cabbage has the Latin name Brassica oleracea var. acephala. It is often called cabbage curly, as well as brassica. This biennial herb is a versatile vegetable because it is an edible product and a magnificent art object that adorns the flower beds in that cold season, when almost all the flowers have faded.
In the first year of the life cycle of a cabbage, a rosette of leaves grows. The following year, the plant produces flower stalks, later on, fruits are formed in the form of seeds. The flowers of cabbage themselves are large, gathered in a brush consisting of a multitude of flowers, with standing stamens and sepals.
The corolla has a pale yellow or white color. The stem of plants is usually short, the root system is pivotal. The leaves are often collected in the basal rosette, like a flower. Such varieties are called heading, or rosettes. Palm varieties have long curly leaves hanging from a long stem..
Depending on the variety, leaf color is varied: various shades of white, green, lilac, pink, violet, red, which may vary during the season. The shape of the leaves can be smooth, wavy or corrugated, on the edge of the sheet dissected or curly.
Already by the beginning of autumn the leaves of brassica acquire their exotic look.A: The height of different hybrids ranges from 20 cm to 130 cm, and a diameter up to 90 cm.
Decorative cabbage can easily become a decoration of a flower bed or a summer cottage both by itself and as part of a floristic composition with other plants. Given the fact that there are a large number of varieties of brassica in size, shape and color of leaves, the composition in the garden, composed only of all sorts of representatives of this species, can create the effect of having many colors.
Brassik can be used when creating bouquets. In this case, you should sweeten a little water, and the bouquet will stand for a whole month.
In the center of flower beds, tall curly palm varieties of ornamental cabbage surrounded by rosette plants look very beautiful. Original patterns can be made from cabbages of different colors, but of the same size. Low varieties of cabbage are excellent for creating curbs..
We recommend to watch a video about the features of ornamental cabbage:
Photo of cabbage in landscape design
This is how cabbage compositions look like in landscape design:
The history of the origin of brassica
The progenitress of modern ornamental cabbage is wild cabbage with smooth and curly leaves., known in Greece since the IV century BC. er The ancient Romans highly appreciated cabbage as an excellent healing tool.
Over time, more and more cabbage blossoms and flowers began to appear in Europe. The Japanese were the first to notice the decorative properties of cabbage. They began to select new varieties of brassica to design their gardens. Nowadays, interest in the aesthetic properties of ornamental cabbage is growing everywhere.
Distinctive features from other species
Decorative cabbage is a representative of the Cabbage family, which used to be called Cruciferous, kind of cabbage curly. It has much in common with other types of cabbage, but there are also differences:
- only decorative cabbage is divorced mainly for the decoration of summer cottages and flower beds;
- unlike other species, such cabbage is resistant to cold and even not very strong frosts;
- only decorative cabbage with blooming leaves looks like a rose queen of flowers;
- other varieties always have a certain color - green, red, purple, but only a decorative variety can have an unlimited number of colors;
- It has curly leaves, and Kale cabbage and Savoy cabbage — too, but the rest have smooth leaves.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of brass can be considered:
- aesthetics and decorative;
- season duration;
- a huge number of diverse species;
- resistance to cold, even frost down to -12 ° C;
- growing with seed or seedlings;
- unpretentiousness in cultivation;
- disease resistance;
- the ability to replant;
- universality in use as an edible vegetable and elegant plant for decoration.
The disadvantages of plants can be considered:
- more coarse leaves compared to white cabbage;
- the leaves are slightly bitter until frostbitten;
- thorough care;
- before the cold looks not too nice.
Is it possible to eat?
If you are interested in whether you can eat this vegetable or not, then know that decorative cabbage is eaten. It is put in salads or stewed with potatoes, especially if the leaves are young, canned for the winter. Such a blank can look extremely impressive, as the leaves retain their shape and color.
Before cooking cabbage it should be frozen, and then thawed. This procedure discourages bitterness. You can let her feed cattle.
What are the best varieties called and look like?
- Kai and Gerda - a relatively new variety of cabbage, reaching 50 cm in height, consists of emerald and purple leaves.
- Kerin - a completely unbelievable hybrid 60 cm in height with a rosette in the summer in the first emerald color, and then as the opening of smooth leaves - bright three flowers, similar to roses.
- Tokyo - rosette plants with a height of 35 cm, with outer leaves of dark green color and inner white, pink and red, slightly wavy and corrugated along the edge.
- Sunrise - a tall plant up to 90 cm in need of support, with one or several rosettes of the type of very delicate creamy white-pink flowers and smooth edges.
- Bohemia - a plant with sprawling open rosettes up to 40 cm in height and with a diameter of wavy, curly or carved leaves up to 55 cm, changing their color from extreme green to purple in the center.
- Nagoya - a hybrid up to 60 cm high, having corrugated leaves, at the edges green and to the middle white or pink.
- Peacock tail - low culture up to 30 cm, most often having a color of carved leaves from purple outside and to crimson inside or from green to white.
- Kamome red - low-growing plant with a height of 15-25 cm with bright openwork leaves, dark green on the outside and dark red inside the outlet, the color of which is further enhanced in the heat.
A photo
Look further at the photo of the "flower" with the names of its varieties:
Kerin
Nagoya
Tokyo
Sunrise
Peacock tail
When to sow seeds and how to grow a vegetable from seedlings?
When planting seeds, it is necessary to consider that healthy and strong seedlings can only be with proper observance of all necessary conditions. Consider the features of planting and care in the open field and at home.
Planting and maintenance in the open field
Sowing material can be purchased at a price of 12 rubles for 0.1 grams to 245 rubles for 100 seeds, you can buy 7-60 seeds from 14 rubles on the websites: semenapost.ru, abekker.ru, semena-tut.ru, 1semena.ru, ncsemena.ru and others. Delivery in Moscow and St. Petersburg is usually carried out by courier, in the regions of Russia - by Russian Post.
- Landing time: May, the threat of frost should be excluded.
- Landing place: sunny plot so that the plants are bright.
- The soil: sandy or loamy.
- Landing: 1 seed is placed in the wells to a depth of 1.5 cm, the distance between the seeds is 3 cm, the seeds are covered with loose soil.
- Temperature: minimum - 8-10 ° С, maximum - 14-18 ° С, the most optimal - 10-14 ° С.
- Watering: After planting, the seeds are poured abundantly.
- Top dressing: When planting humus and wood ash or mineral fertilizer is added to the wells, organic fertilizers or nitrogenous fertilizers can be added as the cabbage grows.
- Other vegetable care measures: when the cotyledons unfold, sprouts with lumps of the earth are seated at a distance of 6 cm from each other, weeding, loosening and hilling are carried out three times per season.
- Harvesting: if cabbage is used for food, then the youngest leaves are harvested as they ripen, in about the second half of summer and early autumn; usually decorative cabbage is removed to severe frosts on a dry day with a knife and shovel.
Growing at home
Sowing material can be purchased at a price of 12 rubles for 0.1 grams to 245 rubles for 100 seeds, you can buy 7-60 seeds from 14 rubles on the websites: semenapost.ru, abekker.ru, semena-tut.ru, 1semena.ru , ncsemena.ru and others. Delivery in Moscow and St. Petersburg is usually carried out by courier, in the regions of Russia - by Russian Post.
Landing time - March, the beginning of April.- Landing place: loggia or the coolest place in the apartment, well lit.
- The soil: Mix the turf and river sand in equal proportions, add ash, it is better to use cups or pots.
- Landing: in moist soil to a depth of 1 cm.
- Temperature: minimum - 8-10 ° С, maximum - 14-16 ° С, the most optimal - 12-14 ° С.
- Watering: moderate, but do not allow the soil to dry out.
- Top dressing: Wood ash or mineral fertilizer is added to the wells when planted.
- Other vegetable care measures: picking, ground cover, additional lamp highlighting.
- Harvesting: for eating young leaves are harvested in the summer; if the main goal is decorative, then to severe frosts; when harvesting cabbage use a knife and shovel.
Landing time - March, the beginning of April.We recommend watching a video about the features of growing ornamental cabbage from seeds:
Crop storage
Board: In order to see the brassica bloom the next year and get the seeds, you should dig out the rosettes with the roots before the onset of frost, wrap the roots with plastic wrap, and hang the cabbage leaves in a cool basement.
In the spring, when it gets warmer, plant cabbage in thawed soil. At the end of summer there will be a spike and then seeds that can be planted for the next season.
Diseases and pests
If individual plants are affected by blackleg or root rot, then they must be removed, and the rest sprayed with Phytosporin, following the instructions. If plants are attacked by slugs, lovers of any cabbage, it is necessary to spray insecticides., for example, Slizneedom. In this case, it is worth breaking the soil and mulching with pine sawdust. A mixture of ash in half with tobacco dust or insecticide spraying of the Commodore will help from cruciferous flea beetles.
Prevention of various problems
With proper and timely preventive measures can be avoided problems with pests and diseases. To do this, regularly spud cabbage, weed, pour to its base a mixture of river sand and wood ash. After rains, you can spray a solution of superphosphate at the rate of 100 g per 10 liters of water.
Conclusion
Decorative cabbage is an unusual and strikingly beautiful plant, quite unpretentious, which can grow even a novice gardener. It can be eaten. But the main thing is that she is not afraid of the cold and only prettier from them.
A huge number of varieties with leaves of incredible colors and shapes allows you to create countless exotic compositions in flowerbeds and gardens that adorn them from autumn to winter frost, and therefore the popularity of this type among growers is growing all over the world.
