By Nik Crawley, founder of GardenTrack · Updated July 23, 2026
✓ In your garden
Bright Lights is the chard that turned a humble cooking green into a garden showpiece — stems in yellow, gold, orange, pink, red, white, and violet, glowing almost neon against glossy green leaves. It won a 1998 All-America Selections award and it's planted in flower beds as much as veg rows. Two honest things to know before you sow: it's a color mix, so each plant is a single unpredictable color (the rainbow is across the patch, not within one plant), and most of that vivid stem color bleeds out the moment you boil it.
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market bunches of rainbow chard — stems in red, orange, yellow, pink, magenta, and white with dark green savoyed leaves, the color range Bright Lights produces across a patch · Photo: Grendelkhan
(CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
· source
Rainbow-stem chardAAS 1998Grown for color
“The AAS-1998 rainbow-stem chard you grow for the color alone — just know it's a mix, so every plant is one single color, and most of that neon bleeds out the second it hits hot water.”
Days to maturity50–60 days~30 days for baby leaf
Stemsyellow, gold, orange, pink, red, white, purplethe widest color range of any chard
Plantcompact, ~18–20 infits containers & bedding
Best seasonspring & fallcool-season; a bit less frost-hardy than green chard
Color & ornamental valueThe rainbow 5/5
Stems in yellow, gold, orange, pink, red, white, and violet — the widest color range of any common chard, plus candy-striped stalks. It's planted in cool-season ornamental beds as much as vegetable rows, and it earned a 1998 All-America Selections award for exactly this.
Flavor & tendernessMild & sweet 4/5
Milder, tenderer, and slightly sweeter than standard green chard — a plus if you find plain chard too strong. Baby leaves are delicate enough for raw salad; mature leaves cook down like spinach.
It's a color mixOne color per plant 2/5
It's an open-pollinated blend, not a hybrid, so each plant comes up a single unpredictable color — the 'rainbow' exists across the patch, not within one plant. You can't choose a color from seed (some, like yellow, show up more than violet or orange); to guarantee one you have to start transplants and hand-sort seedlings by stem color.
Color survives cooking?Bleeds when boiled 2/5
The stem pigments are betalains — the same water-soluble reds and yellows as its beet cousin — so boiling leaches the color into the pot and dulls the stalks. Raw or a fast steam/sauté keeps it best; long simmering does not.
A true edible-ornamental — you just can't pick the colors, and the neon mostly cooks out.
MildSweetTenderLight-earthy
✓ The rainbow — a real edible-ornamental~ It's a mix — each plant is one color✗ The neon mostly boils out
Numbers from university growing guides. Ratings are our take, judged against all chards. Tap a meter to see why.
Growing basics — shared by every swiss chard
Bright Lights grows like any other swiss chard. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Swiss Chard page so it's maintained in one place.
Greenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early May, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
Start seeds indoors
early Mar – mid Mar
Toughen up outside
early Apr – mid Apr
Move plants outside
mid Apr – mid Apr
Plant seeds outside
mid Mar – late Mar
Growing
mid Apr – early May
Picking
early May until frost (~late Oct)
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Bright Lights — the things that trip people up
Grow it for the color — it's the reason Bright Lights exists, and it's a genuine star in a cool-season ornamental bed or container. It's a compact chard, so it fits bedding and pots.
Know it's a mix: each plant comes up a single color, and you can't choose which from seed. If you want a specific color (or an even spread), start transplants and hand-sort the seedlings by stem color before planting out.
Keep the color on the plate by eating baby leaves raw or cooking fast — boiling leaches the water-soluble pigment out and dulls the stems. It's cut-and-come-again like all chard, and a touch less frost-hardy than the plain green types. Set your zone on the [chard page](/plants/chard-swiss/) to pin your dates.
From university growing guides (see Sources).
Where Bright Lights comes from
Bright Lights was color-selected from New Zealand heirloom chard stock by the late amateur breeder John Eaton, and introduced by Johnny's Selected Seeds, which still selects and maintains the separate color stocks. It won a 1998 All-America Selections award — the recognition that made rainbow-stemmed chard a mainstream ornamental-edible.
It was bred as an improvement on the older 'Rainbow' chard mixes, adding more colors and a higher share of candy-striped stalks. That AAS halo, worth being clear about, is for ornamental novelty and color range — not for eating quality or yield, which is a real distinction a lot of buyers miss.
It's a mix — each plant is one color
Here's the thing that surprises first-time growers: the rainbow isn't in each plant, it's across the patch. Bright Lights is an open-pollinated color blend, not a hybrid, so every plant comes up a single color — one plant gold, the next crimson, the next white — and you can't choose or guarantee which from seed. Some colors (yellow and gold) tend to show up more than others (violet, orange).
So if you're picturing one plant with a rainbow of stems, that's not how it works — you plant a bunch and get the rainbow across the bed. If you want a specific color, or an even spread of all of them, the workaround is to start transplants and hand-sort the seedlings by stem color before you plant them out. Grown as a block, though, the mixed effect is the whole charm.
a single Bright Lights chard plant with vivid golden-yellow stems and glossy green leaves — each plant comes up one color, this one gold · Photo: David J. Stang
(CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
· source
The neon bleeds out when you cook it
The stem colors are betalains — the very same water-soluble red and yellow pigments that color chard's close cousin, the beet (a peer-reviewed study catalogued dozens of them in Bright Lights petioles). And water-soluble is the operative word in the kitchen: boil or long-simmer the stems and the color leaches straight into the pot, leaving the stalks dull.
So if the color is why you grew it, keep it out of a hard boil. Baby leaves raw in a salad show it off best, and a fast steam or sauté holds most of it. Cook it long and slow and you'll get a perfectly good chard — just not the neon one from the seed packet.
Growing Bright Lights
Direct-sow in cool soil about 2–3 weeks before your last spring frost (soil above ~40°F), or in late summer for a fall crop; you can also start transplants indoors, which lets you hand-sort by stem color. Sow about 1/2 inch deep. Each chard 'seed' is actually a multigerm cluster that sends up several seedlings, so always thin — to one plant every 6–12 inches, in rows 12–18 inches apart.
Give it full sun and even water; it grows best under about 75°F and can turn bitter in real heat, so give afternoon shade in hot summers and succession-sow. Harvest cut-and-come-again: cut the outer leaves an inch or two above the crown and leave the center to regrow — baby leaves around 30 days, full-size around 50–60. It takes light frost, but note it's somewhat less frost-tough than the plain green workhorse chards.
What goes wrong — and the fixes
Leaf miners tunnel blotchy tan trails inside the leaves — the classic chard-and-beet pest. Use floating row cover, pick and destroy mined leaves, and clear host weeds nearby. Cercospora leaf spot and downy mildew show up in humid, crowded stands — space for airflow and water at the base.
Disappointment when cooked — dull, faded stems instead of neon. That's boiling leaching the pigment; cook fast or eat raw.
All-at-once seedling clumps (that multigerm seed again) and slugs on the tender young leaves. Thin the clusters to one plant each, and bait or trap slugs around seedlings. In extreme heat it can bolt and turn bitter — succession-sow and shade it.
In the kitchen
Use Bright Lights like any chard, with an eye on the color. Baby leaves are tender enough to eat raw in salads and sandwiches, which is also the best way to keep the stem color on the plate. Mature leaves cook down like a sturdier spinach — sauté or steam them briefly.
The thick stems take longer than the leaves, so chop and cook them separately (or start them first). Its flavor is milder and sweeter than standard green chard, which is a genuine plus if you find ordinary chard too strong — and it makes vivid microgreens and a pretty raw garnish, too.
Bright Lights swiss chard at a glance
Bright Lights Swiss Chard — at a glance
Type
Rainbow
Days to ripe
60 days after you plant it outside
Color
Bicolor
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
Watch: growing Bright Lights
Growing Chard from Sowing to Harvest · GrowVegHow to Grow ABUNDANT Swiss Chard: From Seed to Harvest · Nextdoor Homestead
Embedded from their creators on YouTube — full credit and views go to the channel.
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Common questions about Bright Lights
Why is my Bright Lights chard all one color?
Because that's how it works — each plant comes up a single color, and the 'rainbow' is the mix across a whole patch, not within one plant. Bright Lights is an open-pollinated color blend, so you can't choose a color from seed. To get a specific color or an even spread, start transplants and hand-sort the seedlings by stem color before planting out.
Why do the colorful stems fade when I cook them?
The stem colors are betalains — the same water-soluble pigments as in beets — so boiling or long simmering leaches them into the cooking water and dulls the stalks. To keep the color, eat baby leaves raw or cook fast (a quick steam or sauté); avoid a hard boil.
Does Bright Lights taste different from regular chard?
A little — it's milder, more tender, and slightly sweeter than standard green chard, which is nice if you find plain chard too strong or 'beety.' It's grown mainly for its color, though; the flavor difference is gentle, and each stem color is said to taste a touch different.
Is Bright Lights cold-hardy?
It takes light frost and, in mild-winter areas, keeps producing into winter — but it's noticeably less frost-tough than the plain green workhorse chards like Fordhook Giant. For a hard-freeze winter crop, a green-and-white chard overwinters better; grow Bright Lights mainly for its spring-through-fall color.
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