The Rhubarb of Doooom

[primsong]

Thinking of putting in a rhubarb plant now that my kids are older and I don't have to worry about them eating the leaves instead of the stems - thing is, rhubarb is kind of a permanent installation... I had a friend whose family decided to pave over an old garden area for additional parking in front of their house and after a couple years the asphalt kind of began to bulge and crack in one spot and then a rhubarb came up through the crack! Truly The Plant That Would Not Die.

Must be sure where it goes, because apparently it will Be There Forever.

Any of you have rhubarbs? Any opinions on red vs. pink vs. green stems? Or is it all cosmetic?

Comments

[alouzon.livejournal.com]

It comes in colours other than red?
My grandfather planted some in our old garden (which is where the front yard is now), and it hasn't come back up, but the area was pretty thoroughly disc-ed before the grass went in. He planted some down in the ditch under a row of trees, and I imagine it's still there (may have to go take a look).

When we were small, we would pull up a stalk of rhubarb and ask Mom for some sugar to dip it in. We were never inclined to eat the leaves (I didn't know it was dangerous). For me, the danger was carrots. When I was three, I pulled up every carrot in our very large garden and ate them all on the spot. I turned a lovely shade of orange, and gave my Mom a heart attack in the process.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

LOL! I'd heard if you drank too much carrot juice you turned yellow, but had never seen it sworn to by personal experience. Your poor mom - oh goodness... ! And yup, they come in different sizes and different colours - researching some more, I find people swearing the green are sweeter than the red, though the red look nicer - but it may be a moot point as the main variety for my region seems to be a red one anyway. I'll be a rhubarb expert by the end of this.

[alouzon.livejournal.com]

No harm done of course, but if carrots actually were good for improving eyesight, I should be able to see through walls.

How much rhubarb were you planning on planting?

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Being a rhubie-newbie I figure only one or two...maybe two so if one doesn't 'take' I don't get too depressed about it. If they do well, maybe more next time around! They're pretty big and need water, so I'm somewhat limited as my big fir trees hog a lot of the sun and rain. We'll see!

[alouzon.livejournal.com]

my big fir trees hog a lot of the sun and rain
I've seen a tree skirt designed to water trees over a longer period of time -- you may want to take a look at this website (this store has lots of quirky interesting things, including really cool gardening products):

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/index.aspx?c=

And they ship to the States!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

Yay! Another fun garden goodies site! I love browsing around through these. Something like a 'skirt' might be nice for the new figs and filberts out at the other end of the yard until they get established. Hm...