Flowering kale and cabbage are classics in the fall garden, adding intriguing autumnal colors to both flower and vegetable gardens. Flowering kale and cabbage need full sun and do best in the cooler temperatures of fall.

Ornamental cabbage and kale are in the same species, Brassica oleracea, as edible cabbages and kale. They are the result of hybridizing and, although they are still edible, they aren’t as tasty and tender as their cousins. Although sometimes referred to as flowering cabbages, it’s the leaves that give the plants their color and interest as ornamentals.

Description:
Flowering cabbage and kale look like the plants we grow to eat, only they have rosy and/or white ornamental foliage.

Ornamental Cabbage:
The plants with smooth leaf margins are considered flowering cabbage.

Flowering Kale:
Plants with serrated or fringed leaf margins are considered the flowering kales, which are further divided into the "fringed leaved cultivars" (those with ruffled leaves) and the "feather leaved cultivars" (those with more finely serrated leaves). I wouldn’t make too fine a point about it though. That would make the plant in the photo above a fringed leaved flowering kale.