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Decorative cauliflower wins the hearts of flower growers more and more. So pleasing to the eye in a gloomy autumn garden are the bright spots of its flowers. Just at this time, it reveals itself in all its glory and adorns home gardens, cottages and gardens. Ornamental cabbage looks like an unusual openwork flower, not inferior in beauty even to the very queen of flowers – the rose.
She is absolutely not afraid of the cold and flaunts in the flowerbed until the first snow. Such a plant does not require special care and even beginners can grow it.
History, types and varieties of ornamental cabbage
Ornamental cabbage came to us from Ancient Greece, which is rightfully considered its homeland. True, there, it was mainly used like other forage vegetable crops. Even then, there were two types of it: with smooth and curly leaves. Currently, there are various types of such cabbage: annual and perennial, openwork and smooth-leaved, of various colors and shades. All this is due to the selection work of botanists who cultivated many varieties of this beautiful plant.
These varieties are conventionally divided into two categories: plants without heads, reaching a height of up to 120 centimeters, and plants with loose heads and patterned leaves, which were mainly worked on by Japanese breeders.
Among the most common are: “kai and gerda”, “lark’s tongue”, “colors of the east”, “green branched”, “green curly”, “robin”, “lace mosaic”, “red high” and “red bor”.
Very beautiful varieties of ornamental cabbage are bred in Japan: “nagoya”, “tokyo”, “piglon”, “osaka” and “princess”.
“Lark’s tongue” belongs to the “green curly high” group. This is a palm plant. Its greenish tint curly leaves grow on elongated twenty-centimeter petioles.
“Kai i Gerda” is a relatively new variety, which is a mixture of emerald green and purple-purple leaves, reaching a height of up to 50 cm.
“Lacy Mosaic” is a very interesting variety, the name of which speaks for itself. It is especially popular with gardeners. Such cabbage is grown in several colors: green, purple, white and cream. Its openwork leaves, similar to delicate lace rosettes, are very pleasing to the eye from about August to early autumn.
“Paints of the East” is one of the late varieties, which means it is resistant to cold and tolerates low temperatures well. Its rosette has a gradient color: the gray-green color of the leaves smoothly turns into dark purple. The leaves themselves have a rounded shape, but curl around the edges.
“Robin” is a fairly high variety of ornamental cabbage. It can reach a height of up to one and a half meters. The leaves of the flower are corrugated and have a beautiful fuchsia color. This variety is frost-resistant and tenacious, little susceptible to various kinds of diseases.
“Red bor” reaches a maximum height of 80 centimeters and has intricate bright red curly leaves.
Variety “Tokyo” has a bright core, in harmony with the lower emerald leaves. Such a plant is small and reaches up to thirty centimeters in height.
“Osaka” is somewhat reminiscent of the previous variety. Its leaves are either completely straight or too corrugated. The rosette is usually white or pink.
“Piglon” is a beautiful variety with delicate creamy leaves that look like a rosebud. The plant itself is small and exquisite. The leaves are predominantly corrugated.
“Nagoya” has a red or white color. This rather powerful plant often reaches sizes up to 60 cm. The leaves are fringed, lacy.
“Princess” – has a variety of leaf colors: red, white, yellow. They themselves are small, but very corrugated.
Growing and caring for ornamental cabbage
Growing and caring for ornamental cabbage is quite simple and even a novice gardener can do it. Seeds are used to propagate this plant. You can buy them in stores or on the market.
Cabbage is grown from seedlings. Seeds for it are sown around March-April, and you should know that seedlings are taken very poorly in hot conditions, so those who decide to grow it in an apartment need to choose the coolest and brightest places: loggias, balconies, verandas and others.
The soil for seedlings also plays an important role. The best option would be a mixture of sand, earth and peat. Before planting seeds there, it is necessary to pour over the resulting soil with boiling water or a weak solution of manganese, and then place it in a container.
Plant seeds should be sown in moist soil about one centimeter deep. For quick germination, it is recommended to cover the crops with a film, and put the container with the seedlings in a warm place. But as soon as the first sprouts appear, the temperature regime should be immediately lowered to about ten to twelve degrees Celsius and the seedlings should be provided with maximum illumination.
When the first true leaves appear, the seedlings are seated in separate pots, preferably peat. This work requires accuracy and precision, it is best to remove seedlings from the ground with a special spoon or spatula. It is allowed to deepen the shoots only to the cotyledon leaves.
Further care of the sprouts requires only watering, fertilizing and adding soil during the period of seedling growth.
Planting a young plant in open ground should occur before the seedlings reach 80 days. If planted later, it can adversely affect the development of an adult plant. Seedlings should be planted at a distance of at least thirty centimeters from each other.
Caring for ornamental cabbage will not be difficult and effortless. The whole complexity of the process lies only in weeding, timely watering the plant, loosening and fertilizing the soil.
What is important to know when growing ornamental cabbage:
- it is necessary to loosen the soil once a week after watering, so that the roots are completely saturated with oxygen;
- watering the plant is best in the morning or at sunset;
- in order for cabbage to grow and develop better, you need to weed it from weeds;
- in case of severe drought, it is recommended to water the plants every day;
- It is necessary to feed ornamental cabbage with mineral fertilizers once every seven to ten days.
Fertilizing with manure is not the best choice, as in this case the leaves will increase significantly in size, but their color will remain green, and planting a plant for decorative purposes will lose all meaning.
In addition, cabbage easily adapts to transplants. To transfer a flower from one place to another, you need to dig it up and, together with the earth, transplant it where you need it. After you need to generously water the plant.
Often during cultivation, cabbage is attacked by various pests: white butterflies, rodents, insects and slugs. They spoil both the appearance of the plant and its roots, as a result of which it dies.
To protect the flower from pests, you must:
- sprinkle the soil with ash or needles, which will provide the plant with better protection;
- superphosphate solution effectively fights butterflies and slugs;
- spray the flower with various insecticides, provided that it is not planned to be eaten in the future;
- inspect the leaves, getting rid of the dominance of insects in them;
- dill, basil or calendula planted near the plant will help repel pests;
- effective in the fight against them are also the drugs “Bitoxibacillin” and “Lepidocid”.
In addition to pests, ornamental cabbage often becomes a victim of fungal diseases, but this is mostly due to excessive watering of the plant. Therefore, it is important not to flood the flower in order to avoid adverse consequences.
Ornamental cabbage is a very hardy and resistant plant. With proper and timely care, such a decorative flower will show off on the site until the onset of severe frosts. It is able to tolerate frosts down to minus ten degrees. And with proper prevention, he will not be afraid of any pests and diseases.
The use of ornamental cabbage in landscape design
This beautiful flower has taken its rightful place in landscape design. But it could not be otherwise, because the main purpose of this plant is to decorate gardens, household plots, cottages, parks and squares.
There are a lot of options for planting plants and it all depends on the desire and fantasies of the owner. But it should be noted that small varieties are most suitable for landscape design. It is the middle flowers that look best in flower beds, alpine slides and along paths.
Design compositions that can be made using decorative cabbage:
- the varieties “curly green” and “green branched” are very well combined with each other, located surrounded by deciduous or coniferous shrubs;
- with the help of different varieties of ornamental cabbage, complex filigree patterns and ornaments can be formed on the flower beds;
- beautiful compositions are obtained by combining shrubs, ornamental cabbage and perennials;
- with the help of such a decorative flower it is very easy to build hanging and vertical flower beds and make amazing compositions from them.
A wonderful design move would be to grow a plant in large pots or flowerpots. For such purposes, you can plant three plants at once in a ten-liter container and water it in about a day.
The advantage of this technique is that the flower pot can be set aside in an inconspicuous place until it reaches the peak of beauty. And at the end of summer – put it on a flower bed or at the entrance to the house.
Many connoisseurs recommend planting seedlings of ornamental cabbage in distant, unsightly beds. And after the flower grows and reaches all its charm – transplant it to the central places instead of faded plants. At the same time, it is necessary to take care in advance that it is annual plants that are planted in the central flower beds.
Although this plant is for open ground, it can also be planted at home in a pot. And if you don’t want to bother with transplanting, you can carefully cut the plant at the root and put it in a vase of water. This delightful bouquet will delight with its beauty for a practical whole month.
A few final words
Ornamental cabbage is a surprisingly beautiful and at the same time absolutely unpretentious plant. There are many varieties of it, each of which will take its rightful place in the landscape design of your garden, summer cottage or personal plot.
This unusual flower is famous for its frost resistance, and therefore it will please the eye even when cold weather sets in. Moreover, even decorative cabbage powdered with snow looks very impressive. And with the onset of severe frosts, such a beauty can be transplanted into a pot and brought into the house, where she can stand right up to the New Year.