Brassica oleracea var. botrytis, a very popular crop grown for its edible inflorescence, is bred only as a mutated annual cultivar and does not naturally occur in environment. Since cauliflower is still described as the most troublesome of all the B. oleracea vegetables regarding transformation processes, it is fully justified to focus on the improvement of tools for its genetic modifications. Here, we present a successful protocol for genetic transformation of cauliflower employing the process of agroinfection. The primary analysis of in vitro response of five cultivars allowed us to have chosen Pionier as the most promising cultivar; in consequence the Pionier was transformed via Rhizobium-mediated techniques in order to evaluate both, R. radiobacter (EHA 105, LBA 4404) and R. rhizogenes (ATCC 18534, A4) species. However, the latter system turned out to be more effective and, the A4 strain, in particular (72% transformation efficiency, 55% confirmed by GUS assay). That shows a promising technical advance especially when compared to the results of previous literature reports (e.g. 8.7% reported efficiency using R. rhizogenes). The transgenic cauliflower was obtained from hairy roots via organogenic callus induction. The potential transformants were analysed at the genomic and proteomic levels and their transgenic character was fully confirmed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13568-018-0656-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.