Hey all, I had planted 3 ornamental cabbages back in the fall. They stayed alive over the winter so I left them in. Over the past few weeks they have grown taller and no longer have the flat fattish cabbage shape. I was told they have gone to seed and to throw them away. My question is what happens when they go to seed? What happens if I don't throw them away and just keep them in? Thanks! Dan
they are starting to go to seed and will produce an ugly flower stalk and set seed. you can let it mature and save the seeds to see if you can regrow them if you want. mine have always froze out so I have never seen them actually go to seed. Take photos for us and take us along on the "journey".
This is what one of them looks like as of now. I'll take some pictures of the other ones, there are some that are offshoots and have like 3 separate stalks
Magnificent colors!! As long as you are enjoying it, keep it. After it blooms, if you don't want seeds falling everywhere but the foliage is still enjoyable, cut off the bloom stalk off & keep enjoying. It's your plant to manipulate & enjoy as you please.
Question for everyone...won't it go back to normal if you cut off the stalk like you do with rhubarb? I get these large stalks in my rhubarb and all I did was cut them off and it never affected my rhubarb.
good question Sherry....Rhubarb is a perennial plant. cabbage and the rest of the family is a biennial crop. it grows one year and sets seed the second year. then the plant is done. it dies as soon as the seeds are mature. most of us dont' grow those crops for the seed so we don't ever let it grow like that. for me it usually freezes during the Winter and dies.
I'm just at the point now where I figure they look cool and I might as well let them seed and see what happens. One is just getting taller and the other two are starting to grow off shoot stalks too. It's pretty cool how it completely transformed.
