Beginner Gardening: Will my Kale get any uglier?, 1 by captKirkS

captKirkS wrote:
I'm totally new to Kale and just saw them at Lowe's and snapped them up as a great filler between my individual shrubs for the Winter. They were tiny 2 pint plants a few months ago and have grow exponentially! Now that the warm weather and lots of sun is here, they are growing large stems at the top with flowers. Although I like the flowers, I think the stems are ugly.

My questions are:
1) are the stems permanent?
2) should I expect them to get much taller than the 17 inches they are now?
3) can I trim the ugly pink stems back to the main part of the plant without harming it?
4) are they heat/humidity proof? (It get's brutally hot here in Mississippi during the Summer and they will get 6+ hours of full sun during the day.)