Last year I didn't get around to eating the last of my winter kale and collards, so when they successfully overwintered I decided to let them bloom and set seed for fall planting. Now they're beautiful bee-covered gems (so beautiful I plan to do this every year). The kale is the most spectacular offering a riotous cloud of bright yellow color, but the collards aren't shabby either.

Cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower and kolhrabi are all different forms of Brassica oleracea and will overwinter as short-lived perennials in milder climates if left undisturbed. Those grown for their leafy goodness offer the airiest masses of spring blooms, but all brassicas have four-petaled, forsythia yellow flowers that look similar.

Flowering can last as long as two weeks. Bee pollinators favor them most (bees are most attracted to yellow flowers). Long green seedpods, technically called siliques, develop after the flowers fall. These turn dry brown then split open to release the round brownish seeds within. It's important to collect the seed before the siliques fully open. Collected seed will last longest if stored in a dry cool place before planting. Seed saved from garden plants won't necessarily produce true-to-parent seedlings, but the progeny will still be good or even better if they hybridized. Maybe this fall I'll be planting super groovy 'Winterbor' Kale and 'Georgia Blue Stem' collard hybrids or super greens!


Honeybees from a nearby apiary covered the brassica blooms.


Once they've stopped flowering, I'll reserve one 'Winterbor' kale for seed collection.


Aside from foliage differences, collards and kale look very similar in bloom.