Scottish growing tool

Cabbage Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Cabbage varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: A full, mature head that stands right through winter or Something sown and cleared within a single season → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

TundraAGM

Tundra is the only one of the six AGM varieties actually classed as a winter cabbage on its own page, and the only one that stands as a finished, mature head through the cold months rather than as a young overwintering plant. Rated H5, it can be harvested October to February, producing solid, round, sweet, crisp heads — the safest choice for a mature head standing right through a Scottish winter.

If: Spring greens from an overwintered planting, with the most hardiness margin

AdvantageAGM

Advantage carries the highest formal hardiness rating of any of the six AGM varieties, H6, hardy to -20°C. It's a very versatile crop that can provide a year-round harvest of spring greens from successional sowings, or be left to form a pointed heart the following spring. Like Duncan and Winterjewel it overwinters as a small unhearted plant rather than a standing head, but its extra hardiness margin matters most on an exposed plot.

If: Something sown and cleared within a single season → Red cabbage specifically

Red JewelAGM

Red Jewel is the only red cabbage among the six AGM varieties, producing large, tightly packed hearts with crisp, ruby red leaves from July to October. Rated H3, it's a single-season summer/autumn crop, not built to stand through a Scottish winter the way Tundra is. As with Regency, its AGM appears on RHS's general cabbage page but not on its own individual plant page.

If: Something sown and cleared within a single season → Either colour is fine, just want it in and out quickly

RegencyAGM

Regency is a summer cabbage, sown and cleared within a single season rather than the better part of a year the winter and spring types take. It forms very uniform and compact hearts with a strong base and good standing ability, cropping June to September. It's rated H2, not a weaker cabbage, just never asked to face a real frost. Note it carries an AGM tag on RHS's general cabbage page, but its own individual plant page doesn't show the badge.

If: I already have club root in my soil

None of the six on hardiness grounds, lime and rotate instead

None of the six AGM varieties resists club root, every one may be susceptible to it. Choosing a different AGM cabbage variety won't get you around club root on acidic Scottish soil. Apply lime the winter before sowing to raise the pH above 6, and rotate brassicas around the plot, since nearly half of Scottish farm soil samples tested by SRUC came back below pH 5.8.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →

Cabbage growing guide →Full Cabbage varieties comparison →