Ornamental Kale in 6-inch Pots

Autumn color with ornamental kale

It’s time to start thinking about kale—fall is here and that means winter is right around the corner. We need to lay a foundation of color that will get us through those dreary cold months that are on the horizon, and ornamental kale has the chops to do it. This is a winter survivor that just gets better looking the colder it gets. 

‘Scarlet Bor’

Of course, those good looks are what attracted us to ornamental kale in the first place. It’s our go-to crop when we’re looking for an unusual textural element to put a unique stamp on a design. Some of these kales can get kind of wild, with funky frilled leaves and ruffled rosettes. As the temperature drops the colors become pretty intense as well. 

All of this boils down to one valuable plant: it provides both color and texture, and gives us an extra season of interest when most other selections have gone dormant for the year. And speaking of boiling down, we can eat kale too—or at least use it for a garnish. 

We have a few new varieties this year in the 6-inch pot:

Tuscan kale

 ‘Nero di Toscana’, or Tuscan kale, is an Italian heirloom with very dark green, almost black leaves. Notice how long they are—they can reach up to 24 inches. It’s sometimes referred to as black palm for its resemblance to a palm tree. We like the crumpled appearance of the foliage. This variety has a nice sweet flavor, especially after a frost.

‘Maribor’ is one of the ruffled, frilly selections. It has blue-green leaves and as autumn approaches it develops a bright pink center. This kale is also tasty and gets even sweeter with the cold.  

‘Snowbor’ is another frilly variety. These leaves are light green and tightly ruffled, and the plants can reach up to 3 feet high. Flavor-wise it’s mild and sweet with a slight tang—great for adding texture to a designer dinner plate. 

‘Starbor’

‘Starbor’ has bright green, densely curled leaves. These plants are nice and uniform, so they also work well for an indoor display on a windowsill. Constant harvesting will keep them to a manageable size and provide delicious baby leaves for salad all winter.

Get creative with ornamental kale

Kale comes in handy when you want a little drama to even out all the cheery pumpkins and mums in the landscape. Our 6-inch décor size fits easily into combination planters, hanging baskets, and window boxes—or anywhere else your creative mind decides they look best. 

Add drama to mums

We find that a ring or a row of kale makes a colorful base for building up a design. While surfing online we actually saw some kale in hanging baskets—it looked like topiary balls. We also came across a planter with ‘Scarlet Bor’ erupting out of a pile of white pumpkins—it created a striking black and white effect.

 ‘Red Russian’

In addition to our new kale varieties we also have ‘Red Russian’ in the 6-inch pot and some returning favorites in the 4.5 and 8-inch pot sizes. Please see the Availability page of our website for the complete selection.