Stew’d better believe it... why rhubarb’s the great garden survivor
It’s enjoyed in soups, sandwiches, stir-fries and, of course, the odd sugary, crumbly treat. Agnes Stevenson grows the most versatile of vegetables
Ahistorian researching Scotland’s abandoned crofts once told me that among the litter of fallen stones and bracken that was sometimes all that remained of the gardens surrounding these long-forgotten homes, one plant alone was guaranteed to have survived. Rhubarb.
Every croft he’d investigated, he told me, had a large patch of rhubarb that continued to flourish long after the inhabitants had left for new lives in America or in the factories and foundries of the central belt.
You can just imagine how those uprooted crofters must have longed for a plate of home-grown stewed rhubarb when spring came around. And crumbles, pies and stalks dipped in sugar are still a comfort food for many of us.
So if you don’t already grow rhubarb in your garden, now is the time to put that right because over the next few months bare-root plants will become available. You can of course plant potted rhubarb at any time of the year, but traditionally a particularly sweet and productive crown would have been dug up and divided during winter, with portions changing hands like gold dust amongst family and friends.
Rhubarb grows best in a sunny spot, or where there’s just partial shade, and while it does enjoy moist soil you’ll do it no favours by planting it where the ground becomes waterlogged. Add a bucket of well-rotted manure to the planting hole and plant the crowns so that they are sitting an inch below the surface of the soil.
Water your rhubarb at regular intervals during its first year and don’t be tempted to pick any stalks until it’s been in the ground for at least two years – that way the crowns will build up the strength they’ll need to deliver good crops in subsequent seasons.
In future you should mulch in spring and give plants an occasional liquid feed and when you pick, twist the stalks and pull them off rather than slicing through them with a knife.
Most rhubarb is ready to eat in spring, but you can produce earlier, sweeter stalks by covering the crowns with an upturned bucket in order to exclude light and produce a slightly warmer environment.
You can boost the temperature further by piling up manure around the base of the bucket, but after you’ve forced a plant allow it four years to recover before forcing it again.
“Champagne” is a traditional favourite for its sweet flavour, but new varieties such as “Pink blossom” will give stalks over a longer period.