Have you ever visited a botanical garden on a warm spring day and marveled at tulips in a rainbow of colors, with shapes ranging from cups to stars, contrasting striations, and ruffled edges?Now’s your chance to bring a taste of that awes
12.06.2023 - 01:06 / gardenerspath.com / Nan Schiller
How to Grow Cauliflower, a Challenging Cool-Weather Crop Brassica oleracea var. botrytisCauliflower, Brassica oleracea var.botrytis, is a vegetable in the Brassicaceae family that includes broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, and kohlrabi.
It is a cool-weather crop often referred to as a “brassica”or “cole crop,” with edible heads, leaves, and stems.
Cauliflower resembles broccoli in its form, but it is actually quite different.
Unlike broccoli, which has a domed head of tightly packed edible flower buds, a cauliflower head consists of dense, curd-like plant tissue with a soft texture and mildly sweet, nutty flavor.
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There are white, purple, orange, and green varieties with a range of healthy attributes, including vitamins B, C, and K, as well as beta carotene and fiber.
The green type is actually a “broccoflower,” or hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli that most resembles cauliflower with its fleshy head.
Note that there is another vegetable commonly referred to as a broccoflower that is not botanically a type of cauliflower. It is Romanesco broccoli, and has pointed lime green whorls of tightly packed flower buds.
You may have heard that cauliflower is difficult to grow, but that’s only because it has specific requirements that need to be met in order to produce robust and delicious heads.
In this article, we discuss all you need to know to grow cauliflower in the home garden.
Here’s what’s in store:
Let’s get growing!
Cultivation and HistoryB. oleraceavar.botrytis is a half-hardy biennial that is usually grown as an annual in USDA Hardiness Zones 2 to 11.
How confusing is that?
Half-hardy means it’s able
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