week 6 Ornamental Cabbage or maybe it's Kale.

My flowering kale or cabbage has an interesting story.

I bought 6 bedding plants way back in November of 2014 and they grew to look fantastic in the pots in front of my winter home.  Last  winter was extra cool and damp.  They seemed to love the temperatures and really put on a show for us. 

from the winter of 2014/15

When we were ready to head home to Canada in April the plants were still looking great and I had a hard time abandoning them to the hot Texas summer.  The pots dry out real fast and here isn't much I can do except take them out of the pots and transplant them into the ground where they at least have a little chance of getting some moisture. 

When I got back here this fall I was surprised to see that 2 of them were still alive, well barely alive but still showing a bit of green on top of a long, slightly leaning stem.  I started watering them and gave them a little fertilizer and away those guys went once again! 

What great plants. 

I wanted to fill my pots with Ornamental Cabbage again this winter but after searching high and low in all the green houses I could not find any.  Luckily for me the old fellows that managed to stay  alive thrived and put on a wonderful show of colour for me and my neighbours. 


I have noticed some little baby plants growing in the shade of the big fellows.  Could they have set seed some time along the way?   I hope these little babies grow for me during this summer and are here to great me when I arrive again  in the fall. 

I will be very honest and admit that I don't care much for this weeks painting.  I am not very happy with how it turned out.  Im not going to stress about it though.  Learning how to paint is a process and I have lots of weeks and lots of  flowers left to practice on.  It's not really about making perfect paintings but about setting the goal of one flower painting a week as well as making my art a daily routine. 

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