Purple Tree Collards – A Fantastic Perennial Vegetable
Purple tree collards are a fantastic but rare perennial vegetable. With a nice mild flavor, and reaching heights over 6 feet (1.8 meters), these plants can provide you with a year-round abundance of greens for your family and community. Ready to get started with purple tree collards? Keep reading to learn more.
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Purple tree collards are a perennial vegetable that is related to other brassicas like broccoli, cabbage, and other common garden vegetables.
Because of this, they’re one of the easier perennial vegetables to introduce to your garden, since you can use them just like you would kale or collard greens.
Wild Tip:
There are several types of perennial brassicas which all make great additions to the garden. Check out this post to learn more: Perennial Brassicas – An Easy First Perennial Vegetable.
While tree collards are fairly easy to grow, they aren’t very cold-hardy, doing best in USDA climate zones 8-9.
But they can be grown in greenhouses in colder areas and you can take cuttings from them. You can root these cuttings inside over the winter and then transplant them back out in the spring.
I know of at least one example of this being done in zone 5 in Chicago.
Here in western Washington, they have survived several winters along the south side of my house. The coldest temperatures were down in the upper teens (F) but the warm micro-climate along the south side of our house kept them happy.
If you live in a warm enough climate for growing purple tree collards, they will make a fantastic addition to your property.
Let’s dive into more information about these great perennial vegetables!
But before you scroll on down, make sure to grab your free and easy-to-print cheat-sheet all about perennial greens! Tree collards are just one of 11 perennial greens covered in this cheat-sheet.
Growing and Harvesting Purple Tree Collards
While our tree collards started out small, they’ve grown quite large! So much so that they even help shade part of our house. Soon I will have to keep them trimmed so they don't block our window!
Purple tree collards are very easy to grow, though they can be a bit slow to get established. I got my first 3 as rooted cuttings from a great nursery about 2 years ago (see the link at the bottom of this section).
During the first year I only harvested them occasionally to let them get established. But now at the start of year 2 they’ve taken off, and they provide a ton of great tasting greens.
You harvest the leaves like you would kale or regular collard greens.
The leaves can get quite large, and these are best used for cooking. But the plant will get lots of smaller leaves that are nice and tender. You can eat these leaves raw in salads, in sandwiches or in wraps.
As an evergreen plant, the leaves will be available to harvest all year round, and they’re a bit sweeter in the winter after a frost.
This makes them a fantastic winter green in milder climates.
Purple tree collards are a fairly rare perennial vegetable, but they’re becoming easier to find in local nurseries. I ordered mine online, but this year (2020), a nursery in my area was selling them.
While these plants can take a frost, they may be killed or die back from temperatures below the upper teens (F).
In zone 8, most winters will be fine. But cold snaps do happen that push the temperature colder than purple tree collards would like.
Because of this, if you’re in zone 8 (or trying your luck in zone 7), make sure to plant them in a sheltered warm micro-climate. Ideally a spot where they’re protected from cold northern winds.
Purple tree collards are fairly easy to propagate through cuttings. So if you’re worried about your plants surviving an upcoming cold snap, take some cuttings inside to root.
If your plants are killed, you will at least have the cuttings to replant in the spring. This could be a good option if you only get cold snaps like that once every 5 to 10 years.
To learn more about how to propagate purple tree collards, check out the fantastic Project Tree Collard’s site which goes over each of the steps needed to propagate these great plants.
They also have great information on how to prune your purple tree collards to get the most out of them and keep them healthy.
Both of those links take you to the same page all about purple tree collards. Just scroll down or use the shortcuts on the left side of the page to find the sections you need.
Ready to get started with these great plants? Here is a quick summary, along with a link, to order your own purple tree collards.
Info on Purple Tree Collard
Getting Started with this Great Perennial Vegetable
I just love how big the leaves can get on these great perennial vegetables!
Purple tree collards are a great example of how you can start transitioning away from traditional annual and biennial vegetables.
But tree collards are called that for a reason. They can get really big!
So make sure to put them somewhere that they won’t shade out your other vegetables. They will also need something to support them.
After mine fell over and started growing sideways, I built a simple wire fence using u-posts. This is enough to keep them from falling over.
The plants are happier and I can get through my path again. Plus, it’s much easier to harvest them now!
If you want to learn more about perennial vegetables, then make sure to check out these other posts:
Perennial Vegetables Series
Want to learn more about perennial vegetables? Check out this series to learn more about these fantastic perennial foods.
There are many other easy-to-grow perennial vegetables, including ones that do great in colder climates.
Growing these sorts of vegetables is a great way to work with nature to cultivate abundance for people, plants and animals.
Every year, I try to add some new perennial vegetables to my growing areas. How about giving purple tree collards a try this year at your place!
I would love to hear from you—leave a comment below saying if you’ve tried purple tree collards or if you’re planning to in the future.
Happy growing!
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