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Gardeners World blog

Flowering rhubarb

Posted in Grow & eat by Pippa Greenwood at 11:56 am on Thursday 8 May 2008 26 Comments

Rhubarb plant in flowerI’m rather fond of rhubarb, preferably under a thick blanket of butter crumble or stewed with a dollop of organic vanilla ice-cream.

We normally have a great crop from our organic kitchen garden, but this year my rhubarb plants are producing flowers instead of the edible stems I love so much.

Rhubarb crowns were some of the first crops we planted in our vegetable garden. I scrounged them from my school friend’s dad, who still lives at the end of the road where I was brought up. The crowns he gave us produced bright red, slim, succulent and tasty stems.

But I’ve just discovered three flower stalks have grown in my rhubarb patch. If left to bloom, they can weaken or even kill the crowns, although I’ve never had the nerve to let this happen.

I removed the flower stems straight away to encourage the plants to produce more delicious stems. Not one to waste a good flower, however, I put the beautiful blooms in a vase.

Comments

  1. Posted by Anonymous at 12:00 am on Monday 1 January 2007

    I have moved my rhubarb from my flowering border where the blind lady before me had it close to the door but it doesn’t seem to be doing very well it looks very thin and sparse any advice would be welcome thanks

  2. Posted by Matron at 8:49 am on Wednesday 16 May 2007

    I’ve tried using the juice from stewed rhubarb and making a bucks fizz with champagne! incredible!

  3. Posted by Anon at 5:05 pm on Sunday 11 May 2008

    I have several crowns, one in the garden and several in big pots but they seem to be dying off prematurely, can a crown have a limited life span or are they lacking in nutrients?

  4. Posted by chris/dave at 5:50 pm on Monday 12 May 2008

    I grew rhubarb from seed for my allotment and with 3 seeds I got three lovely plants, but the rhubarb wasn’t ready to pick until about september and old hands told me it shouldn’t be picked after midsummers day. It was lovely right into october.Now I have had to leave my allotment and my one plant in my garden flowered before anything grew, I snapped it off, it’s not recovering very quickly.

  5. Posted by alicemay at 7:13 am on Wednesday 14 May 2008

    how can i keep ferral pidgeons out of my garden

  6. Posted by Matron at 5:31 pm on Thursday 15 May 2008

    I’ve tried using the juice from stewed rhubarb and making a bucks fizz with champagne! incredible!

  7. Posted by Erica at 8:43 pm on Thursday 15 May 2008

    Gunnera substitute. I grew a proper crown (like a giant doughnut) for years. A friend had thrown it on his rubbish heap and I made him retreive it. I grew it in dry soil next to a pond mainly for the leaves and the flowers and it flowered every year. I only removed it when I re-shaped my pond. It must have been very old. I don’t know the variety. The flower stems were not as high as ‘Champagne’ but then it was never fed.

  8. Posted by Julie at 9:48 am on Wednesday 11 June 2008

    I have tree rhubarb crowns in my garden which belonged to an old tenant,the rhubarb is about forty years old, they love it in the shade, and the start of winter i pile the earth up and over the crowns and every year i get tall, thick stems and rhubarb that melts in the mouth.

  9. Posted by Sophie at 1:13 pm on Wednesday 9 July 2008

    I bought a 1 year old crown from Wisley last year and planted it as recommended. Unfortunately it has rotted off! I bought a forcer and placed it on top of the crown as soon as buds appeared in the ground, got a few stems and that was it. What could have caused this? Should i have left it a year before picking? Or shouldn’t i have forced it so soon? Any help would be appreciated.

  10. Posted by camerashy at 8:19 pm on Tuesday 29 July 2008

    I have just bought 3 rhubarb crowns for my new allotment and they have about 4 stalks on each.
    Will these stalks die off in time to just leave the crown or will they stay on over Winter.
    I know I should cover the crowns with manure in January/February.

    Any other tips please….one of the leaves has turned brown so I have removed both the leaf and stalk.

  11. Posted by Scags at 4:40 pm on Saturday 9 August 2008

    I’m new to growing rhubarb but not to cooking and eating it. Most stalks have small lumps of clear firm jelly on them which, when rubbed off, reveals a brownish stain, even a hole, in the stalk. Is it eggs or a secretion? Can I eat it?There are holes on the leaves and I’ve found 2 pale green caterpillars on the underside about 1cm long.

  12. Posted by lusi83 at 10:39 pm on Monday 18 August 2008

    I also have the clear jelly on my rhubarb…I didn’t have it earlier in the year …does anyone know what it is?

  13. Posted by lusi83 at 10:57 pm on Sunday 24 August 2008

    I think I have found out what causes the clear jelly…the Rhubarb weevil/snout beetle. The jelly is sap from the rhubarb… the beetle lays in eggs in the stalk then in some plants the larvae burrow down the stalk -but in rhubarb the larvae can’t grow..so it doesn’t really harm the plant but marks the stalk. The only way to get rid of them that I’ve found is to keep the surrounding area clear of weeds -especially docks..but I don’t have any around mine…so if anyone can come up with a better way to get rid of them I’d love to know…thanks

  14. Posted by mark at 10:48 pm on Monday 25 August 2008

    I got a feeling that the clear jelly is actually what they put inside a nappy. most likely got at by a fox and riped apart. I have seen them do it and the stuff looks like a clear jelly, water retaining crystal.

  15. Posted by standswithtrees at 9:12 pm on Wednesday 6 May 2009

    I am a complete garden novice and need help! I’ve got some rhubarb that has been completely neglected and unharvested in very poor soil in a shady area of the garden for about 10 years. I’m a reformed character and now want to rescue the rhubarb and move it to a more suitable area where I can tend and bring it back to life….Is this possible? If so, how do I do it??

  16. Posted by simreb at 12:31 pm on Monday 1 June 2009

    I noticed that something was eating the leaves of my Rhubarg and found a large beetles with red body and black other parts.Anyone know what this beetle might be. I cannot find it anywhere on the internet. Who would eat poisonous rhubarb leaves???

  17. Posted by john bass at 4:43 pm on Monday 1 June 2009

    i moved into a house 4 years ago and the rhubarb was delicious but last year a flower grew which i cut out but this year there were 3 or 4 flowers which once again i cut out but the rhubarb has gone all limp and does not look nice at all can you tell me wether the soil need some sort of feeding if so what and the corns do they need digging up and cutting

  18. Posted by parky at 2:57 pm on Friday 5 June 2009

    Hello, Iam new to growing veg un fruit and could do with some advice on rhubarb. I recently purchased a crown but the label doesnt say how old it is, it is only a small one but have at least 5 rather large leaves with thick stems. Questions are how can you tell if it is ready to eat? How can you tell how old it is? many thanks

  19. Posted by suzie53 at 6:55 pm on Monday 8 June 2009

    Has anyone else had my problem this year with Rhubarb

    Mine has been trying to grow flowers and none of the stems have turned red they just stay green

    What have I done wrong

  20. Posted by Maggie at 1:47 pm on Thursday 30 July 2009

    Is it true that there are times of the year when you should not pick and eat rhubarb?

  21. Posted by victoria at 5:21 pm on Tuesday 8 September 2009

    I have lots of rhubarb still growing fine but I was told that it shouldn’t be eaten after August as it becomes poisonous.Is this true?

  22. Posted by grubby girl at 9:54 am on Wednesday 28 April 2010

    HI Im new to growing fruit and veg and rescued some rhubarb crowns from my grandads garden after he died last year. I was abit silly and put it in a approx 10 inch pot and covered it with soil. things happened and i forgot to move it to the graden and re plant it. I thought i would have killed it for sure but by a miracle it looks great. It has healthy leaves and several nice red stalks. Should i move it to a bigger pot or as it seems to be doing ok should i leave it where it is as its growing?

  23. Posted by Anonymous at 10:42 am on Tuesday 4 May 2010

    What a great success story with your grandad’s rhubarb. I’d be worried about it in a 10in pot as it is a seriously thirsty plant and keeping it moist in so small a pot, especially once it has full sized foliage, will be nightmarous! I’d be inclined to transplant it, but do so asap, and keep it really, really well watered….and keep on giving it lots of TLC throughout the rest of spring and summer

  24. Posted by trixie at 6:01 am on Sunday 16 May 2010

    In the Autumn, cover your Rhubarb in Horse manure and you will have an amazing crop next year…

  25. Posted by Pippa Greenwood at 9:23 am on Monday 17 May 2010

    and many rhubarb clumps are flowering again this year, though mine mostly not !

One Trackback

  1. By Too Many Tomato’s « Manor Stables Veg Plot on Wednesday 13 May 2009 at 4:44 pm

    [...] rhubarb – not only is it 6 ft tall and taking over a half of a bed, its started to flower. I’ve just Googled it, and Pippa Greenwood (her of the BBC, hence in my book, an expert) says [...]

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