Ornamental Kale
Brassica oleracea
Set out in fall for frilly rosettes of white, pink, red and purple leaves whose colour deepens as nights cool, carrying beds, borders and pots into winter. It shrugs off frost. Plant it as the weather turns cool, in full sun and well-drained soil, since warm weather makes it bolt.
- Mature size
- 1.5 × 1.5 ft
- 0.5 × 0.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 2a–11a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
Ornamental Kale at its mature size
A mature Ornamental Kale grows 1 to 2 feet tall and just as wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
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Through the year
What Ornamental Kale looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Jan–Aug
A cool-season annual: not in the ground.
In leaf · Sep
Freshly planted: all leaves blue-green, centre not yet coloured.
Fall · Oct–Dec
Blue-green frilly outer leaves around a rosy magenta-pink centre.
Photos
Growing Ornamental Kale
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Winter interest
- Native to
- Europe and Mediterranean
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Ornamental Kale, that’s about 1.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Ornamental Kale in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.