Love is like a red red ... cabbage this Valentine's Day

Yellow "roses" being sold online for Valentine's Day are delicately wrapped and decorated with ribbons and other colorful flowers. What many Chinese young people who have reserved the roses may not realize is that these "blooms" actually are a new type of cabbage that looks like the most romantic flower. 

“The ‘roses’ are very nutritious,” said Hou Xilin, a professor with Nanjing Agricultural University, who has spent 13 years researching the cabbage with his team members. “They have three times more vitamin C content than common cabbages. About 100 grams of the ‘roses’ contain 156 mg of vitamin C.”

The cabbage can resist low temperatures and its vitamin C content rises as the temperature drops.

“This non-GM cabbage gets its characteristics from generations of hybridization and self-pollination,” Hou said. “We are now researching equipment that allows people to grow the ‘roses’ on their balconies. An experiment on my own balcony has turned out to be fruitful.”

A nursery in Kunshan, East China's Jiangsu province, that is supervised by Nanjing Agricultural University has an online reservation service for customers. Each cabbage sells for 8 to 10 yuan ($1.30 -$1.60).