The Three Bears of Kale

‘Scarlet Bor’ in an arrangement, already a deep purple

Kale is a subset of the brassicas, a large class of cool weather vegetables including cabbage, brussel sprouts, mustard, and collards. We often focus on the ornamental value of a kale, regardless of whether it’s edible or not. It’s surprising how many varieties from the vegetable garden can come out front into display beds.

For most design situations, we turn to one of the three bears of kale: the Nagoyas, the Bors, or the Yokohamas. Whether you need round and feathered, tall and ruffled, or tight and frilly, one of these three families is usually just right.

A crop of ‘Nagoya Red’ in early October—notice the red tint just coming in

It can be difficult to tell kales from cabbages. Kales are generally described as not-cabbages, meaning they are the ones that don’t form a head. They produce rosettes, either tightly bound, very open, or just upright. Sometimes it is hard to see the rosettes, but if you look at the base where the leaves connect to the stalk you will see them.

Kales are considered frilly, feathered or ruffled, so deeply-cut incised leaves signify that a plant is a kale. If the edge of the leaf is smooth, it is probably a cabbage. Like all brassicas, the color begins to appear when the nights start dropping below 60°, and turns more vivid once the frost hits the plant. Kales stay good down to about 15° or until the suffocating snows kill them, so in a mild winter they survive into spring.

Interesting kales are especially useful when you or your customers are going through mum fatigue. They come into their strength during the fall and early winter, and they are very popular in commercial landscaping where they finish off the contract season on a strong note.

THE NAGOYA SERIES

‘Nagoya Red’ with the color eye forming

The baby bear of kales, this is the smallest of the three and the one most similar to ornamental cabbage. Rosettes are round with a center eye of color. About the same size and height as an Osaka, they are used when you want a frillier version of the cabbage look. In fact, the two are often interplanted with each other to show off the texture differences.

Yellow pansies are traditionally planted along with Nagoya kales

In a mass planting, Nagoyas connect better because their looser heads and stronger color bleeds out to their tips. However, their eyes still have the strong color in the center, so you get an undulating movement. For specimen plantings, they have a strong round silhouette with the additional textured edges.

THE BOR Series

‘Snow Bor’ grows into open fans of ruffles

This is the papa bear of the kales, escaped from the vegetable garden. Its taste is highly regarded, but we like the very vivid purples—downright burgundy after frost—that appear on these very large ruffled leaves. The Bors have a thick stem supporting the large leaves which becomes a design element of its own.

‘Scarlet Bor’ delivers a deep purple into the stem as well as the leaves 

There is a trend toward using Bors in autumn containers as the thriller in the center. This is a good choice when you want the display to serve a decor role all the way to the Christmas holidays. Bors shrug off frost so a display improves as the temperature turns colder. As the entire plant purples up you get graceful arches from the stems and big splashes of color from the leaves. On top of that, the ruffles add texture.

THE YOKOHAMA SERIES

Notice the cupping in the leaves of ‘Yokohama Red’

In between the other two is the mama bear of the kales. Yokohamas have short, stout stems that keep the plant shorter, with long, intensely frilled leaves that cup toward the center. This unusual leaf delivers a rolling mound of frills rather than a tightly organized pattern.

These sprigs of ‘Yokohama White’ show the unusual cupping even better

We find that the cupping is especially interesting. While the edges have an intense need to twist themselves tightly, it occurs only at the edges. Leaf centers remain smooth so the result is a deep cup that arches. This combination creates a three-dimensionsal effect of motion and turbulence that even involves the color that laces out to the tips. All in all, it is a very different look for the genus.

As far as the industry is concerned, Yokohama seems to be a secret kale. Few people talk about it, and that’s a shame. It makes a fine container plant—all those frills fill the space well and contribute a lot to a design in both color and texture. As a border plant, it makes an interesting hedge when planted close together in a line.

Nagoya kales in a traditional ornamental display garden

THE BEST TIME IS NOW

October-into-November is an ideal planting time for kale. Earlier plantings tend to introduce more green into the leaves than later plantings, but now there is still time for the plants to settle in and get comfortable. Also, earlier plantings tend to get leggy in the heat of August or September.

Usually two types of kale are planted together to contrast either the colors or the textures. To cover the soil around the kales, pansies or violas are selected because of their cold hardiness. We think that yellow or orange pansies contrast well with the purple kales, and purple pansies contrast with the white kales to make them pop. For strong vertical interest, we’ve seen tufts of grasses or short millets mixed into the garden.

A fully colored version of ‘Nagoya White’