All About Rhubarb Plants

1 / 4
Rhubarb plants, with their red or red and green stalks, can add a tart accent to a wide variety of foods.
Rhubarb plants, with their red or red and green stalks, can add a tart accent to a wide variety of foods.
2 / 4
Mulch rhubarb plants when they're four inches tall.
Mulch rhubarb plants when they're four inches tall.
3 / 4
Remove seed heads from rhubarb.
Remove seed heads from rhubarb.
4 / 4
Don't try to save diseased plants. Destroy them.
Don't try to save diseased plants. Destroy them.

Your won’t have to spend all winter and half the following summer yearning for freshly picked, homegrown fruit once you put in a rhubarb patch. Though rhubarb plants are actually a perennial vegetable, its fruity-tasting stalks can be transformed into delicious pies, sauces, jams, jellies, and conserves. They can also be baked or stewed and used as a topping for hot cereal or to add a special zing when mixed with other cooked fruit. The sweetened juice makes a refreshing cold drink, and the pulverized stems, fermented with sugar, will produce an interesting wine.

Curiously, despite its being delicious, low in calories and fat, and a good source of vitamin A, potassium and some vitamin C, rhubarb was slow to reach the dinner table. The type known as Rheum officinale has been cultivated in China and Tibet for medicinal purposes for nearly 3,000 years, but Rheum rhaponticum, the parent plant of most of the rhubarb we eat today, is thought to have originated in the Volga River region of Siberia, and wasn’t introduced to Europe until the 17th century. From there, it eventually made its way to this country, where it became commonly known as “pie plant.”

Types and Tastes

This hardy perennial grows two to four feet tall, sporting enormous green leaves on strong red, green, or reddish green stalks. Both its leaves and roots contain oxalic acid, which is poisonous, so only the stems (properly called petioles) should be eaten.

Few people bother to grow rhubarb from seed, since doing so would add yet another year to the three usually required to produce the first good harvest. However, should you decide to go this route, you’ll probably be most successful with an old-fashioned, very tart variety called Victoria, whose green stalks are blushed with red. (When starting with seeds, sow them one inch deep outdoors in April, thin the seedlings to six inches apart, and then establish them in a permanent bed in the fall.)

  • Published on Mar 1, 1989
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368