Beloved of the French – and cultivated by them for centuries – the ornamental cabbage is the perfect hardy annual for introducing sculptural form and a splash of vibrant colour. With leaves almost coral-like in their intricacy and colours ranging from delicate greens to intense aubergine purples, ornamental cabbages are ideal for making a grand statement either planted in a stone urn or peeping from a formal border.

Click here to visit our beautiful ornamental cabbages gallery.

CHOOSING AND CULTIVATING ORNAMENTAL CABBAGES
With a fertile, preferably chalky soil and plenty of sun, by early autumn you can have a cabbage crop all of your own. The uneven surfaces of the leaves means that pests such as cabbage white butterflies find it difficult to land, so unsightly eaten leaves are rare, although the caterpillar is a danger – the RHS advises that you pick them off, and, if you are suffering on a large scale, to spray them with the biological control Bacillus thuringiensis. There are varieties of cabbage available that will produce heads from spring right through to winter, from the glorious 'Rose Bouquet', which produces dwarf, solid round heads of luminescent red-pink, surrounded by a ruff of green leaves, to Tuscan cavolo nero, a black-coloured kale with leaves like ostrich feathers.

WHERE TO BUY ORNAMENTAL CABBAGES
• The Heritage Seed Library.
• Suttons.
• Seeds of Italy.
• Thompson & Morgan.

Want to see more? Visit our beautiful ornamental cabbages gallery.

WORDS AND STYLING JACKY HOBBS
PHOTOGRAPHS MICHELLE GARRETT
NOVEMBER 2004