All hail to colorful, versatile kale

Colorful kales star in the kaleidoscope of container culture, providing welcome hues in outdoor displays after frost turns summer flowers to mush. Sometimes called flowering kale, it's ornamental kales' leaves -- not flowers -- that supply the color.

The decorative leaves range from tightly curled to straight and serrated. They come in varying combinations of bright pink, deep purple and creamy white, often with accents of green.

You can choose from different sizes and shapes, ranging from tall and upright to short and rounded.

Cool weather brings out the bright colors of kale leaves, making the plants ideal for autumn decoration when you combine them with other cold-hardy plants like ivies, coral bells and evergreens in large containers. The show generally lasts until temperatures dip into the teens.

Ornamental kales are also fun to bring indoors for table decorations or for garnishes, and a few big leaves make colorful liners for bowls and buffet trays.

Related to cabbage and broccoli, ornamental kale is subject to the same pests. When you purchase full-grown plants just in time for autumn decoration, though, you probably won't have to worry about protecting your plants. Cabbage worms and other pests are seldom active in cool weather.

Although ornamental kale is edible, it doesn't taste as good as it looks. The leaves are not nearly as sweet and tender as kale varieties that are bred for eating.

Of the vegetable kales, Winterbor is the classic. Growing 2 feet tall or more, this vigorous variety is blessed with outstanding cold hardiness. It's pretty, too, with ruffled dark-green leaves. Another variety that stands up exceptionally well to cold is Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch, a low-growing variety with curly blue-green leaves.

Red Russian, an heirloom variety that's regaining its popularity, offers flat, toothed-edged, gray-green leaves with purple veins that looks as good as it tastes in salads. Purple stems add to this variety's good looks in the garden.

Kale connoisseurs wait until cold weather to harvest the leaves. Kale needs the cold to convert starches to sugars for a sweeter taste. Most varieties bred for eating are even hardier than ornamental varieties. Grown in a cold frame or under a row cover, kales can be harvested for much of the winter.

Kale is best eaten soon after you pick the leaves. The young, tender, outer leaves are ready to harvest just 25 days after sowing the seeds. Large leaves, best for steaming, casseroles or stir-fries, take about 60 days to mature.

Kale is good for you, however you eat it. It's packed with vitamins A and C, calcium, protein and iron.