Sea Kale

Crambe maritima

• Position: full sun or partial shade
• Soil: deep, fertile, well-drained soil
• Rate of growth: average to fast
• Flowering period: June
• Flower colour: white
• Other Features: from late winter to spring the young developing stems may be blanched and eaten as a vegetable. The flowers are attractive to bees
• Hardiness: fully hardy
  
  Clusters of honey-scented, white flowers in early summer held above wonderfully ruffled, leathery, blue-green leaves. This hardy native
  
  
• Garden care: In January cover the crowns of two-year- old plants with special earthenware blanching pots or large plastic buckets, weighed down with bricks and surrounded with a mixture of well-rotted, garden compost and leaf mould. Once the blanched stems are 15-23cm (6-9in) high harvest by cutting below the crown.
  
  
• Goes well with: Eryngium giganteum, Sedum spectabile, Hemerocallis 'Stella D'Oro', Aconitum 'Bressingham Spire', Euphorbia characias subspecies wulfenii 'Blue Wonder', Cerinthe major 'Purpurascens'