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I planted these about 6 months ago thinking they were cauliflowers. Most of them seemed to go to seed(?) but one looks rather good and I am proposing to eat it. What are they and why did most of them go to seed?

Good specimen Poor specimen

idontgetoutmuch
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  • May I ask where you are? What’s the weather and climate at your (or rather, the plant’s) location? – Stephie Feb 22 '19 at 16:54
  • London (UK) - temperate with the odd frost / snow - rather sunny and mild at the moment – idontgetoutmuch Feb 22 '19 at 16:56
  • Wow, so you had them over winter? – Stephie Feb 22 '19 at 16:56
  • I am now going to show my ignorance but I thought that's what you did with brassicas (plant them in Autumn and harvest them in Spring) – idontgetoutmuch Feb 22 '19 at 16:58
  • Lol, I am just impressed - wouldn’t work where I am. No criticism. – Stephie Feb 22 '19 at 16:59
  • @Stephie It's standard practice in the UK, though it works better for brussels sprouts and "plain" cabbage than the fancier brassicas which are more easily damaged by weather. IMO sprouts aren't really worth eating unless they have been hard frozen on the plant to boost the natural "antifreeze" level which gives them their characteristic flavour. They don't come to any harm if they are completely buried in snow, except it's hard to harvest them when the are frozen solid!. – alephzero Feb 22 '19 at 20:05
  • We just ate it. It was delicious. Thanks everyone :) – idontgetoutmuch Feb 22 '19 at 20:13
  • Always save your seed packets in a zip lock. Write on the packet when the seeds were planted. Your receipt will have a date on it. Write on the receipt something to the effect you thought you had cauliflower not this broccoli, which is still very cool. If you have a relationship with what ever garden store you habit, you have this kind of information, they should definitely give you a new pack of seeds. If they don't I'd try another store. If you had the packet of seeds you could know what it is you bought and this picture should be enough. Save seed packets and keep a log of some sort. – stormy Feb 22 '19 at 21:44
  • I'm jealous, idontgetoutmuch - my garden is under at least 60cm of snow at the moment. I'm most likely 5-6 weeks from seeing anything green out there. – Jurp Feb 22 '19 at 23:25

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This looks very much like romanescu, it's normally green but there seem to be pictures of purple ones on Google. As far as going to seed; the head on cauliflower or broccoli is a flower, so they don't go to seed in the same sense as a plant grown for leaf or root veg. However they can be fussy plants and environmental conditions can affect the way the head forms (traditional cauliflower is apparently very susceptible to this). I have some romanescu that I planted late in the season which grew heads over winter and which variously were eaten by pigeons or killed by frost, it had a small head on today which I just picked. I don't think these are intended to be an overwintering variety - I'm just outside London so similar climate but without the heat sink buffer of being in the city.

Edit: adding pic. when I posted this answer, my romanescu had typical green florets on, by end of march they looked like the below, distinctly purple

romanescu

David Liam Clayton
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  • My local supermarket in the UK sells this as "purple sprouting broccoli" Apart from the colour, it's the same as green broccoli, except it's more expensive. AFAIK Romanesco is yellow-green, not purple, and the OP's picture doesn't have the typical Romanesco shape either – alephzero Feb 22 '19 at 20:00
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    Purple sprouting broccoli has multiple separate long, loose florets. Romanescu has a compact, fractal-like spiral head, which is what this photo looks like to me. – David Liam Clayton Feb 22 '19 at 20:48
  • I suppose given the OP's assumption that the others went to seed means possiby that it's a purple sprouting broccoli, the others were actually sprouting normally, but for some reason this plant has grown differently. – David Liam Clayton Feb 22 '19 at 20:56
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Looks like romanescu, a broccoli.

C. Kelly
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That purple one is purple broccoli

The yellow one looks like the standard Broccoli (maybe Chinese), and is going to seed.

black thumb
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