Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 1 JuneA cabbage on 5 June, its outer leaves spread level and overlapping on cream-white midribs washed dull purple, the innermost already cupping inward into the start of a heart and grayer the further in they go, in low late side light.Week of 22 JuneOne young plant on 24 June, leaning hard out of its bag rather than standing up, its dozen glaucous leaves fanning from a purple-washed stem, every margin ruffled into rounded frills and finished with a thin cream-white rim, and nothing yet at the middle.Week of 22 JuneOn 25 June, a heavily waxed blue-green rosette just beginning to cup inward without yet closing, its thick cream-white veins fanning out to margins that frill and undulate under a fine white edge, and the stem below stained dull purple.Week of 6 JulyStraight down into a dew-soaked rosette on 9 July, waxy blue-green leaves bitten through and notched along every frilled edge, and at the middle a tight ball of overlapping dusty-maroon scales that matches nothing else in the frame.Week of 6 JulyA cabbage beginning to heart on 9 July, the knot at its center wrapped tight and deep magenta-purple with pale cream frills along the innermost edges — the great outer leaves crimped and lit through to a net of cream veins, dew standing all over them.Week of 5 OctoberA rosette of waxy gray-green paddle leaves on 7 October, its cream-white veins fanning from thick midribs into a closed center a third the rosette's width that shifts from cream-pink to deep magenta-rose. Low warm light rakes it from the left over dusty soil.
