Grow perennial brassicas!

When it comes to perennial vegetables I find brassicas to be a great place to start. Though if you live in cold climates a lot of them aren’t cold hardy – though a few are cold hardy. So what are perennial brassicas? Let’s dive into them!

The blog post – Perennial Brassicas – An Easy First Perennial Vegetable – dives into 3 of these fantastic perennial vegetables.

1. Kosmic Kale
2. Tree Collards
3. Turkish Rocket

I should add that Turkish rocket is not directly related to the common brassicas like broccoli, kale, etc. which were all bred originally from the wild cabbage plant Brassica oleracea. But Turkish rocket is still part of the larger Brassicaceae family of plants which includes broccoli and the other more common brassicas which are all part of the genus Brassica.

Why I Like Perennial Brassicas



I have all 3 of these perennial brassicas growing on my wild homestead. What I love about them is that they’re fairly easy to use instead of the more traditional annual or biannual varieties.

Kosmic kale for example is just a kale that happens to be perennial instead of biannual. Tree collards can be used just like regular collard greens or as a kale replacement.

Turkish rocket is a bit different but can be used as a mustard green replacement or even broccoli. Though the flavor is a fair bit different than broccoli.

But compared to a lot of perennial vegetables these 3 and other perennial brassicas are easy to add to your garden and replace some of your traditional vegetables.

There are many other types of perennial brassicas. The blog post has a resource that covers more of these great vegetables.

What About You? Are You Growing Any of These Vegetables?

Each year I try to add new perennial vegetables to my garden but these 3 are great ones to start with. If you are just getting started with perennial vegetables I highly recommend kosmic kale since it’s so easy to use—assuming it can grow in your climate zone.

I would love to replace all my regular kale plants with perennial kale—not having to plant kale any more would be fantastic!

So what do you think? Are you growing kosmic kale or any other perennial brassicas? Do you have a perennial vegetable you would recommend someone start with? Please leave a comment with your reply!

Also, don’t forget to head over to the blog post and check out all 3 of these perennial brassicas!

While you are over on the blog most make sure to leave a comment! If you are the first to do so you will get a piece of pie! The pie will get you access to some special features on perimes, discounts at some vendors, and you can use it to purchase some products on the permies digital marketplace.

If you leave a comment on the blog post make sure to leave a post here on permies too so I can easily give you the slice of pie.

Thank you!

Thank you for the information and the pie! As I said on your blog, this is a great resource.

We've had some luck with perennial brassicas, too. Intentional or not, our sprouting broccoli has made it into its third season, sending out thousands of tiny broccoli florets. We put them into salads and stir fries, and our rabbit loves them. We've also had some success with growing dinosaur/nero di toscana/lacinato kale as a perennial. When it tries to bolt we just pinch off the tops and it branches out with more tasty leaves. It gets through our mild winters pretty well and starts to regrow as soon as spring hits. Haven't tried any true perennial brassicas, but I'm sure they're worth it.

Alec Buchanan wrote:We've had some luck with perennial brassicas, too. Intentional or not, our sprouting broccoli has made it into its third season, sending out thousands of tiny broccoli florets. We put them into salads and stir fries, and our rabbit loves them. We've also had some success with growing dinosaur/nero di toscana/lacinato kale as a perennial. When it tries to bolt we just pinch off the tops and it branches out with more tasty leaves. It gets through our mild winters pretty well and starts to regrow as soon as spring hits. Haven't tried any true perennial brassicas, but I'm sure they're worth it.

Nice! Great to hear! I have a kale that is going into it's 3rd year despite flowering during it's 2nd year. Have you ever had any of your kale keep growing after bolting? Kosmic kale is a great option for trying prennial brassicas--they are not too hard to find these days from nurseries and they don't flower at all. They taste good too!

I can vouch for this. I live in Florida where its hot as heck and we have some red russian kale that is still going. The stalk is super high but it is still creating leaves at the top. Ive never had any go to flower yet surprisingly.  I need to clear it out but i dont want to get rid of it LOL

Great post! All three of those are things I want to grow, so I was happy to see they are supposed to be hardy in Z8.
My question is, do they go dormant during the winter and/or summer? I've found most of my annual brassicas will often grow through the winter, spring, and fall; but they, either, bolt by mid/late summer, or they behave like biennials by dying back in the first summer, pushing growth again in fall, then bolting the second summer. I wasn't sure how it works with the perennial brassicas.
Either way, hopefully I'll have the opportunity to grow more perennial brassicas in the near future 🤞

I ordered a few Merritt collard cuttings from Project Tree Collards and a packet of 30 seeds, which could turn out to be anything. I'm really hoping the cuttings will make it, as they are clones from the original.

https://www.projecttreecollard.org/product/merritt-collard-seeds-30/

I'm wondering what the best way to handle the seeds might be, in terms of being able to watch them over time to see what arises. I'm in zone 8a, so I hope it's not going to get too cold for the MCs to survive.

Diane Kistner wrote:
I'm wondering what the best way to handle the seeds might be, in terms of being able to watch them over time to see what arises. I'm in zone 8a, so I hope it's not going to get too cold for the MCs to survive.

Diane, your tree collards should do pretty well. I haven't grown any from seed yet ( I propagate through cuttings, and receive them as gifts from friends), but I can say that they grow very well here on our farm in Zone 7b with no protection other than a deer fence. The only problem we've had was a gusty day that kept blowing the collards down. They're okay now, but will be transplanted soon when we remodel the garden area.

I bought tree collard starts from bountiful gardens a few years back. They did fine inside. The day I put them outside? The chipmunks ate every single one of them down to dirt level in about an hour. So much for my tree collard starts! It never occurred to me that I needed to put them in a wire cage or such— beware!

Jennie Little wrote:I bought tree collard starts from bountiful gardens a few years back. They did fine inside. The day I put them outside? The chipmunks ate every single one of them down to dirt level in about an hour. So much for my tree collard starts! It never occurred to me that I needed to put them in a wire cage or such— beware!

Good to know!  Sorry for your loss, but thanks for the warning.

Patrick Humphrey wrote:I live in Florida where its hot as heck and we have some red russian kale that is still going. The stalk is super high but it is still creating leaves at the top. Ive never had any go to flower yet surprisingly.  I need to clear it out but i dont want to get rid of it LOL

Hi Patrick, I have had great success MOVING Kale plants (even in late August!) - at almost any time in their life! So you might try moving your red russian somewhere where it can just keep going and not be in the way.  You might also try cutting some back to 6 or 8" and seeing if they will resprout a top. Most kinds that I grow do this very well.

And - I forget who asked about it continuing on after flowering -- My experience has been good with this as well!  I have even let really special plants go to seed, collected the seed, and cut off the seed stalks and had them just continue on.  I find kale one of the toughest most useful long producing plants in my garden. I get the wonderful flower sprouts to eat in spring - and always let some flower for the bees - and harvest leaves for me and the chickens all year round!  If one of the plants gets aphids at the top around the new leaves (a common phenomena), I just break the whole top off and give it to the chickens - who love the aphids as well as the kale!   I have plants that are going on 5 yrs. old...  If you break the tops off they will branch out instead of making a tall skinny plant. They you have short bushy plants with many more leaves and tasty bud heads in the spring.  A great plant to experiment with!

I have tree collards and love them. The flavor is great and they are super easy to grow. I also have Kosmic kale from Territorial Seeds which is good tasting but the leaves are tough.

I also have been having fun sprouting a few perennial kale seeds I got as a grex mix from Experimental Farm Network. One seed developed into a beautiful kale that looks like Russian kale but tree type. It also has a bit of pink at the edges in cold weather. Flavor is bitter though. Another was pink edged and short but tough and bitter and poor eating so I re-homed it. A few didn’t seem to really want to grow well for whatever reason. Another couple grew and seemed fine but weren’t cold hardy.

I keep the seeds in my refrigerator and just plant about 10 or so each year. It is all I really have room for and can develop into a full sized plant and make decisions about. Kale seeds can easily last in the refrigerator for 8 or so years so they are not going to waste. Most plants don’t make it or are re-homed. I am hoping for a great flavor and some color and at least an acceptable texture. If it isn’t at least as edible as the Kosmic that I have it gets sent to my neighbors. If it is, it still has to survive my mild winter.

Perennial brassicas are the best!

Perennial brassica (kale) is not only an easy and good-tasting vegetable, it also looks good. I happen to take a photo of frozen droplets on the brassica leaves a few days ago. So I'll share them here too:



frozen droplets on perennial kale

btw in Dutch we call this 'Eeuwig Moes', 'eeuwig' meaning 'eternal'; 'moes' is an old word for something like 'leaf vegetable'.

Thanks, Daron, for this great information and topic.   I'd like to see more info on a 'perennial scallion/green onion patch'... would be using evergreen bunching scallions/ 'onions' I think, or perhaps there are some kinds of shallots, like Zebrune,  that can work the same.    Like how to harvest and maintain.  Thanks :,

Barb Allen wrote:

Patrick Humphrey wrote:I live in Florida where its hot as heck and we have some red russian kale that is still going. The stalk is super high but it is still creating leaves at the top. Ive never had any go to flower yet surprisingly.  I need to clear it out but i dont want to get rid of it LOL

Hi Patrick, I have had great success MOVING Kale plants (even in late August!) - at almost any time in their life! So you might try moving your red russian somewhere where it can just keep going and not be in the way.  You might also try cutting some back to 6 or 8" and seeing if they will resprout a top. Most kinds that I grow do this very well.

And - I forget who asked about it continuing on after flowering -- My experience has been good with this as well!  I have even let really special plants go to seed, collected the seed, and cut off the seed stalks and had them just continue on.  I find kale one of the toughest most useful long producing plants in my garden. I get the wonderful flower sprouts to eat in spring - and always let some flower for the bees - and harvest leaves for me and the chickens all year round!  If one of the plants gets aphids at the top around the new leaves (a common phenomena), I just break the whole top off and give it to the chickens - who love the aphids as well as the kale!   I have plants that are going on 5 yrs. old...  If you break the tops off they will branch out instead of making a tall skinny plant. They you have short bushy plants with many more leaves and tasty bud heads in the spring.  A great plant to experiment with!

Thats a great idea! transplanting it to another area makes sense. I am attached to this kale now because its been here so long, would hate to just throw it away to the chickens. LOL Maybe i should try to break the top off? The bottom is so bare and almost callus so I am worried that would prevent it from sprouting new leaves near the bottom. Thanks for the reply - Patrick

Cool beans.  What zones are each of you overwintering these in?  Thanks.

Does growing asparagus count as perennial veggie?  I started a bed with asparagus and strawberries. Both spring crops with different root zones and the strawberries act as a ground cover. The spring will be the first harvest for the strawberries and a lite picking of the asparagus.  

Lovely new thread, thank you!

Our 3 yr old Turkish rocket is planted in a rock spiral bed to keep in under control and I'm careful to remove any flowering stalks - My understanding is that it can become invasive if left to its own devices. young leaves are a really useful addition to salads and we cook the older leaves

We have 1 year old nine star brocolli plants that have had mixed results - one produced a single head and three produced many smaller florets.  Many got hammered by caterpillars and we lost a couple of plants but the rest are recovering.

Nero de Toscano Kale 40 planted 2017 - around 10 flowered spring 2018 then continued to produce leaves after seed pods removed. All the plants flowered in 2019 and half died off. I had to clear one of the beds, but we have four plants in another bed that continue to produce leaves on plants that are now multi-stemmed.

I've saved seeds from all of the individual plants and plan to run trials on leaf size, flowering and longevity.

Summer cabbages that bolted in 2017 continued to produce small leaves on multistemmed plants thoughout 2019

Asturian tree cabbages sown 2017 continues to produce good sized leaves and recovers well from cabbage white caterpillars. Both are multi-stemmed although I did prune one of the plants to remove quite a few side shoots and 3/4 of those have taken as cuttings.

Our soil leans towards acidic so we add wood ash from the fire - (when I remember) and apply it in a little pile near one side of the plant - I read somewhere that it's better than putting it all around  - the roots can choose to go for the alkaline or not as they wish if you give them a choice. Seems to work ok for us.

Hadn't thought of transplanting Kale till I read this thread! Good to know it's possible.

Ive found these decorative cabbages in the city .
Never seen anything like this before and ive stopped to photograph them.
They must be cold hardy since its December and im living in zone 6,Romania.

Mihai Ilie wrote:Ive found these decorative cabbages in the city .
Never seen anything like this before and ive stopped to photograph them.
They must be cold hardy since its December and im living in zone 6,Romania.

Those are too pretty to eat even if you could.

Alec Buchanan wrote:We've had some luck with perennial brassicas, too. Intentional or not, our sprouting broccoli has made it into its third season, sending out thousands of tiny broccoli florets. We put them into salads and stir fries, and our rabbit loves them. We've also had some success with growing dinosaur/nero di toscana/lacinato kale as a perennial. When it tries to bolt we just pinch off the tops and it branches out with more tasty leaves. It gets through our mild winters pretty well and starts to regrow as soon as spring hits. Haven't tried any true perennial brassicas, but I'm sure they're worth it.

I have never heard of sprouting broccoli before, that sounds interesting. Is there a specific type people would recommend? I was interested in planting some perennials, but my kids will definitely not eat Kale or other greens.

I'd also love to hear more about people's experience with perennial bunching onions/ scallions.

I grow two kinds of arugula (rocket) of which one is perennial. The annual, white-flowered kind, Eruca, is very fast growing, gets big and produces a lot for its space, but in my desert climate it gets too hot-spicy too fast. The perennial, yellow-flowered kind, Diplotaxis, stays small and is slower to start but rebounds fast from being cut to the ground, has very small leaves and is fussier to harvest, and doesn't get too hot-spicy, even in hot weather. In my experience so far, the perennial one seems to have much less problems with aphids and caterpillars. Both are vigorous reseeders, and since the perennial one doesn't get spicier when it flowers, it tends to get left to go to seed if it wants.

Patrick – Awesome! You could try taking some cuttings from that kale and try getting them to root so you could transplant them to a different area. Might work—I’m going to try that with my one of my kale plants.

Kc – Thanks! Turkish rocket goes dormant in my area. It dies back to the ground here. Kosmic kale and tree collards in my area slow down but don’t go fully dormant. Though they’re growing very slowly now. I’m in zone 8 and all 3 do great but I do like kosmic kale and tree collards for winter harvests.

Diane – Nice! I got my tree collards from them. I’m not sure on the seeds—I have never grown tree collards from seeds. I would pick a bed to grow the seeds in and then see how the plants do. The ones that do well and prove to be perennial could then be transplanted and/or cuttings could be taken from those and rooted so you could grow those clones where you wanted them.

Mike – Thanks for replying to Diane!

Jennie – So sorry to hear about your tree collards! I’m lucky so far with mine but your story is making me want to expand mine from cuttings…

R Scott – Agreed!

Barb – Good to know your experience with moving kale plants! Really great to hear that you have kale plants continuing after flowering. I wonder how often this happens? Lol, I wonder if there are a lot of perennial kales out there in gardens?

Tivona – I like the younger leaves on my kosmic kale. I use them in salads and on sandwiches. But yeah, the older leaves get tough though they are still good in soups! 😊 Thanks for sharing your experience with growing ones from seed—really interesting!

Inge – Thanks for sharing your pictures! I love it!

Nancy – You’re welcome! I’m currently experimenting with perennial scallions and onions on my own wild homestead. Once I get those plants established I will write something on them. I try to limit my posts to what I have direct experience with on my wild homestead.

At the moment I’m trying several native onions and I’m looking at some leek varieties that can be grown as perennials. I also want to try some of the wild leeks that grow in the eastern United States. I also want to give walking onions a go and see how they do.

Joshua – I’m in zone 8 but I have seen examples of people in zone 5 growing tree collards with winter cover. Though they did take cuttings each fall and bring those inside to root incase they had a very hard winter.

Dawn – Asparagus is a perennial vegetable in my book 😊 Really any perennial plant that is used as a vegetable in cooking counts for me.

Lesley – You’re welcome! I’m really enjoying this thread too! 😊 I could see Turkish rocket becoming invasive in some areas. In my area it does not spread—I have let it flower and go to seed now for 3 years and so far no new plants have popped up. But I was a little worried about that issue at first. I put mine in an area where they could not spread very far just incase.

The flowers are very beautiful and smell good. Pollinators just go crazy for them too!

I have not tired nine star broccoli plants but I want to.

Thanks for sharing your experience with all the different types—really interesting!

Mihai – I have heard that the young leaves on those are edible but the older ones are not good for eating. But I have no personal experience with them. Very beautiful!

Adam – They are very beautiful! Just need to grow enough to harvest some and let some be (assuming they are edible) 😊

I’m not sure about the sprouting broccoli—does anyone know if nine star broccoli would work? I have not grown it but I would assume it would be a sprouting type after it produces its first heads of broccoli.

Rebecca – Good to know! A post on those is on my list but I do want to wait till I get more growing on my own land. But perhaps I could write an intro post first and then go into more detail once mine get going…

I will have to try out that perennial arugula—it sounds really interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Daron Williams wrote:
Diane – Nice! I got my tree collards from them. I’m not sure on the seeds—I have never grown tree collards from seeds. I would pick a bed to grow the seeds in and then see how the plants do. The ones that do well and prove to be perennial could then be transplanted and/or cuttings could be taken from those and rooted so you could grow those clones where you wanted them.

That's a great idea. I wonder if I could get away with throwing them out in a bed now. I'm in zone 8a. Or should I wait until about February?

I tried tree collards twice, here in S. FL and they died. I was very disappointed. Collards usually do quite well for me, lasting years, so I thought the tree ones might work.
No luck!

Diane Kistner wrote:

That's a great idea. I wonder if I could get away with throwing them out in a bed now. I'm in zone 8a. Or should I wait until about February?

I'm not sure... I never tried growing them from seed. When I planted my rooted cuttings it was around late February or March. I kept them under cover for a bit until they got established. Not sure if that was needed. I don't know what temperature the seeds need to germinate. Some seeds don't like to be too wet and can rot in cold and wet conditions. Others will just sit dormant but the longer they sit the more likely a critter might find them but often seeds are fine if they are covered by a layer of soil.

Cara Campbell wrote:I tried tree collards twice, here in S. FL and they died. I was very disappointed. Collards usually do quite well for me, lasting years, so I thought the tree ones might work.
No luck!

Sorry to hear that--I'm surprised that they died. Your climate should be a good one for them. Where did you get yours from? I got mine from the Purple Tree Collards Project and all 3 survived find. 2 Grew a bunch and 1 is much smaller but hanging in there.

I got the first ones that all died from Project Tree Collard, and the next ones from a a northern Fl gardener.

Oh well!

Cara Campbell wrote:I got the first ones that all died from Project Tree Collard, and the next ones from a a northern Fl gardener.

Oh well!

That's too bad! I wonder if kosmic kale would do well in your climate... I'm not sure but it seems less fussy than tree collards.

How to find these in Europe?

We cannot receive cuttings, for sanitary reasons, and seed selling is getting blocked... some new laws are making it impossible for small companies to get the authorisations to be able to go on selling to Europe... (i receive the news from some American providers)

Daron Williams wrote:

Cara Campbell wrote:I got the first ones that all died from Project Tree Collard, and the next ones from a a northern Fl gardener.

Oh well!

That's too bad! I wonder if kosmic kale would do well in your climate... I'm not sure but it seems less fussy than tree collards.

Well, the website specifies zone 8, and I'm in 10b.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:How to find these in Europe?

We cannot receive cuttings, for sanitary reasons, and seed selling is getting blocked... some new laws are making it impossible for small companies to get the authorisations to be able to go on selling to Europe... (i receive the news from some American providers)

Hi Xisca. Here in the Netherlands we have perennial kale too, known by their Dutch name 'Eeuwig moes'. You can order the seeds from the Dutch organic seed companies (Vreeken, De Bolster). But maybe even varieties of perennial kale originating in Southern Europe do exist? Of course they are called by a different name.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:How to find these in Europe?

We cannot receive cuttings, for sanitary reasons, and seed selling is getting blocked... some new laws are making it impossible for small companies to get the authorisations to be able to go on selling to Europe... (i receive the news from some American providers)

For true Tree Collards, I can't help.  However, I recall corresponding with Burra Malaca a few years ago about Galega seeds - perhaps someone else in Portugal can get them for you?

I've planted "Ewiger Kohl" either from seed or plants from German sources - Ruehlemann's has a nice variegated variety: https://www.kraeuter-und-duftpflanzen.de/pflanzen-saatgut/kalmegh-kuechenschelle/kohl-ewiger/ewiger-kohl-weissbunt-pflanze as well as ordinary green ones.

Baumschule Horstmann has Crambe cordifolia, which they say isn't edible but PFAF says is:  https://www.baumschule-horstmann.de/herzblaettriger-bluetenkohl-698_77401.html?utm_expid=.f_5-zjbmRZuzqtSAXic18w.0

ETA:  Also this UK shop has what they call tree collards, though they aren't currently available for order and who knows if they will be before Brexit makes things difficult:  https://www.incrediblevegetables.co.uk/taunton-deane-kale/

I vaguely remembered this... from 7 yrs ago!!... here's the link with comments about a lot of kinds of brassica bushes, trees, etc.
https://permies.com/t/11755/Bush-Cabbage

some perennial brassicas on my list (zone 5) include

asturian tree cabbage
Perennial arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia)
Turkish broccoli (Bunias orientalis)
Kaleidoscope kale
Dames rocket (Hesperis matronalis)
sea kale (Crambe maritima)

Cara – Normally that is the minimum zone not the maximum. Most sites are bad about not listing a maximum zone for their plants. I’m not sure though about Kosmic kale and its heat tolerance.

Xisca – I’m afraid I don’t have an answer to your question. Hopefully someone else can help you out.

Thanks Inge for mentioning the Dutch variety! That is actually one that I have wanted to find here but so far no luck!

Thank you Morfydd for the info and links!

Nancy – Thanks for sharing!

C. West – Nice! Great to know what grows in zone 5! Thanks for sharing!

Because of this thread, I remembered that I wanted to look for new perennials to add to our garden next spring. I found some, and a sale on 2019 seeds at quail seed.

lesley verbrugge wrote:
Our 3 yr old Turkish rocket is planted in a rock spiral bed to keep in under control and I'm careful to remove any flowering stalks - My understanding is that it can become invasive if left to its own devices. young leaves are a really useful addition to salads and we cook the older leaves

I was looking into Turkish Rocket after reading about it on this forum... I see it listed as invasive in way too many publications, so I don't think I can justify the risk at this point.

Mihai Ilie wrote:Ive found these decorative cabbages in the city .
Never seen anything like this before and ive stopped to photograph them.
They must be cold hardy since its December and im living in zone 6,Romania.

Re: decorative kale (like the purple ones in the photograph) - we planted 3 of these in our flower bed last spring.  They provided nice "greens" for a salad until the rest of the garden (grown from seeds) was going well enough to harvest.  After that, we let them be beautiful in the flower bed.  We only plant edibles/useful plants on our property.  All the strictly ornamental plants came with the house.  We're not ripping them out, but as things die or get pruned back, we replace them with useful plants - beautiful too if we can.  Does anyone know if these decorative kales are prone to acting like a perennial?  Hoping that ours overwinter.

Commenting on the sprouting broccoli:
My winter gardening book claims that these are already quite popular in UK and US.

I wanted to try it out and bought a variety which is called Early purple sprouting (IIRC).
In the first year, I had four plants which took up a fair amount of my tiny veggie beds. I did have cabbage worms, but they all recovered. Some fell over with time and after every thunderstorm I had to rearrange them and tie them in place.
One or two plants did NOT produce sprouts. They were all healthy and fine, but just no sprouts. The other plants produced nicely and I could harvest for a long time - in winter growth almost stopped, but I could get tiny sprouts.

Last year I decided I only needed two plants.
They did very nicely, no cabbage worms this year. One produced sprouts, the other looks very happy but with no sign of sprouts!
I could of course harvest the tender leaves, but frankly we are not a cabbage-eating family.

After recently having seen pictures in a German gardening group of some cabbage family plants that were simply left in place and that keep producing leaves or Brussel sprouts or dwarf kohlrabi, I have thought I might try leaving one plant just for the sake of experimenting what will happen if I remove all flower buds.

There are various companies that offer the seeds (I ordered it over the internet).