Category: What is Rhubarb

Planting Rhubarb

October 7th, 2025

Fall is a good time to plant rhubarb. The feed store won’t be selling roots at this time of year, but if a friendly neighbor wants to share, say “Yes, please!” You’ll want to plant it in a spot that gets lots of sun and where the soil is sandy, so it will be well-drained. You could even plant rhubarb in the flower bed, if that’s the best spot you have. Treat it like an ‘ornamental’.

How large the hole needs to be depends on the length of the root stock that you get. If the root is very large and has several clusters of stalks, then cut it up into smaller pieces before you plant. Cut into the root clump from top to bottom, being sure to include a cluster of stalks in each piece you remove. The roots could be from 5 inches to 12 inches long. so make sure that your holes are deeper than the root is long. If planting more than one root clump, then you need a hole for each one. Locate the holes 3 [three] feet [1 meter] apart — rhubarb leaves have quite a spread!

Put some manure in each hole, followed by a pint or two of water. Then position the root clump in the hole so that the top of it is a little lower than ground level. Fill the hole with soil, and tamp it down with your foot. This will make a ‘well’ around the plant which you will now fill with water. Then surround the new planting with more manure or at least good compost. Put some sort of marker to remind you what you have planted there — you don’t want to mow the new plants over next Spring.

If your area is having a drought, water the newly-planted rhubarb every other day, but not too much lest you rot them. If you are getting regular rain, you will not have to water. The plants will look peaked, and the leaves will be limp, but that is as much end-of-season die-back as it is transplantation shock. After the killing frost, top-dress with manure again, and leave them until Spring. There is no need to cut back the stalks at the end of summer, nor to remove them. Their decay will add nutrients to the soil.

The next Summer, let them grow undisturbed. Do not harvest any stalks. This will help the roots to build up lots of energy for growing. The second summer, harvest one or two stalks from each new plant. At the third summer, the plant will be well-established and you may harvest at will, being sure to leave at least two stalks on each root crown.

This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.

If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.

The next blog installment will be posted on November 18, 2025. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Forcing Rhubarb

April 9th, 2024

In England, more so than the US, Rhubarb is eagerly anticipated in the Spring. The plant is grown commercially, especially in the Rhubarb Triangle of West Yorkshire and their singular product is ‘forced rhubarb.’ Forced to do what? you ask. I will explain.

The plants are grown in the fields for two years, just like all Rhubarb. In November, when they are dormant, the roots are transplanted into low heated sheds, protected from the weather. Months before the soil warms in the rest of the country, the Rhubarb begins to sprout. The sheds are completely dark, sometimes illuminated by red light bulbs or candles. In the warm, nitrogen-rich soil, the plants grow so fast that you can hear them!

Forced Rhubarb with its bright red stalks and weird leaves.

Forcing Rhubarb makes it available for sale out of season. Thus it is in the markets from December to April. Forced Rhubarb leaves are pale green, due to a lack of chlorophyll from growing in the dark. The stalks are red. This product is prized for its sweetness [leading to the mistaken idea that red field-grown Rhubarb of any sort is sweeter than green Rhubarb], and its tenderness. After the last harvest, the plants are dug up and put in the compost pile.

This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The Festival was started in 2013 to benefit the library Building Fund. If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH, 03442, USA.

The next installment of this blog will be posted on May 7, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Rhubarb is Up!

March 18th, 2024

Can you see them — those pink leaf buds pushing up through the soil? This is the earliest that I can remember seeing new growth, a full three weeks before last year. [Don’t try to tell me that the climate isn’t changing!] Usually the Rhubarb Patch is covered by at least a foot of snow in mid-March, but we had a mild winter.

As the leaves unfurl and the stalks grow taller, it is time to watch for flower buds. It is good to locate those early. Why? I like to dig out the roots that are flowering, to thin out the bed. The roots that are removed are sold to benefit the Library Building Fund or moved to another part of the garden where they will have more room.

Can Rhubarb Pie be far behind? Yum.

This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival. The Festival started in 2013 to benefit the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund.

If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH 03442.

The next blog installment will be posted on April 9, 2024. If you click the Subscribe button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Rhubarb, the early years

October 24th, 2023

Rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum, originated in southern Siberia, on the border with Mongolia. Some say the name is of latin origin — yet the Greeks were using it for medicine before Roman times, and they called it rheon, which is related to a Persian word for the plant. The ‘barberum’ part of the name means ‘foreign.’

The Genus name ‘Rheum,’ comes from central Asia’s Rha River, named by the Scythians, now called the Volga River. The region has been inhabited for 9000 years, but at what point the inhabitants began to use Rhubarb or even how it arrived there from Siberia, we can only speculate. They must have grown a lot of rhubarb in the Volga floodplain, facilitated by the well-drained fluvial sediments with a high organic content. Thus, Rhubarb means ‘foreigner’s plant from the Rha River Valley.’

As long ago as 5000 years ago, the Chinese used the woody roots of Rheum palmatum for medicine: to relieve diarrhea, fevers, and constipation. [Constipation was a frequent problem in days past, due to the unavailability of fresh fruits and vegetables for months at a time.] Medicines that promoted bowel function were called ‘cathartic’ or ‘purgative.’

Along the Silk Road, formalized in 130 BCE, rhubarb roots were traded widely. Their laxative properties were in high demand and rhubarb roots were the major export of Asia for centuries — a very valuable commodity. Rhubarb in those days was not valued for the stalks, but for the roots only. Thus from the very early days, Rhubarb was a useful medicine and a valuable commodity.

This is the blog of the Bennington Rhubarb Festival, which was started in 2013 to benefit the library Building Fund. If you would like to help the Building Fund, please contribute any amount to the G.E.P. Dodge Library Building Fund, Bennington, NH, 03442, USA.

The next installment of this blog will be posted on November 21, 2023. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.
Rhubarb: what is it?

April 11th, 2023

Every year at the Rhubarb Festival, we are asked, “Just what is Rhubarb?” So if that is where you are starting, you have come to the right place.

Rhubarb is a very hardy perennial plant, so tenacious that it will survive from growth zone 8 to zone 3. It is part of the Buckwheat Family [Polygonaceae] of plants, the cousin of sheep sorrel and curly dock [Rumex crispus]. Garden rhubarb in the United States is Rheum rhabarbarum, one of dozens of varieties within that Genus. The roots are long, woody, and look somewhat like huge carrots. They are referred to as ‘crowns.’ Around here, the Rhubarb starts to come up in April: a red, bud-like knob of curled leaf, crowning through the soil. Then come the stalks, pushing the leaves higher into the air. The stalks can be three feet tall, colored red or green. The leaf is heart-shaped and very wide. At this point, the stems can be harvested for eating. [What can one cook with rhubarb? Several future blogs will address that, recipes included.] Please note: although those leaves look good enough to eat, they contain high amounts of the toxin Oxalic Acid. DO NOT EAT THE LEAVES.

From the first pink buds pushing up, to the full leaf unfurling, it is a treat to watch the changes as the Rhubarb grows. photos from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

By June, the flower stalks rise high above the leaves, carrying bunches of tiny, frothy flowers looking like cumulus clouds. Gardeners in the know are aware that these stalks must be cut down. If a Rhubarb plant blooms, then the stalks become too tough and woody to eat. This has lead to the erroneous notion that Rhubarb is available only in the Spring. No so. If you cut down the flower stalks, you can harvest the stems until September.

At the Bennington New Hampshire Rhubarb Festival, there are contests for ‘Longest Stalk’ and ‘Widest Leaf,’ as well as ‘Rhubarb Photography’ and ‘Rhubarb Flower Arrangement.’

Rhubarb stalks come in many colors, which has no affect on the flavor or tartness.

Rhubarb flowers can make a nice arrangement.

The next installment will be posted on May 9. If you click the Follow button, all future posts will be sent straight to your inbox every month.