Kanga-Rhu rhubarb: The bad, the annoying, and the frustrating

General Gardening
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A few years back, I bought some Kanga-Rhu rhubarb from Gurney’s to use up a gift card. It sounded very promising: heat tolerant, extra red, extra sweet, extra everything. I really prize redness in rhubarb, and the promise of a variety that could be harvested further into summer made it seem like just the ticket.

Two years later, I’ve had nothing but disappointment from this plant. To start with, the plant they sent was a quite small TC plant that clearly needed a few more weeks in the greenhouse (at a minimum). I know rhubarb is pretty bulletproof, so I planted it anyway. Lots of compost, free of weeds, and a few feet from another rhubarb planted the year before and receiving pretty much identical treament. The first year, it did about what I expected, which was to grow a little and not produce much. The second year, I was hoping it would size up enough to at least sample a few stalks, but it stayed wimpy. It showed up earlier than the other rhubarb, but wasn’t big enough to harvest. It also bolted early. I was a bit disappointed, but knew it wasn’t out of the question. After bolting, it went fully dormant and I thought maybe I lost it. At the end of summer, it came back and FINALLY grew enough to sample a couple stalks. Super skinny, but they were nice and red. Unfortunately, the flavor wasn’t great. It tasted strongly of beets. I like beets, but it’s not what I’m looking for in rhubarb. I chalked it up to being young still and hoped for better results in spring.

Now what’s really funny is that it refused to quite go dormant over the winter. Any time it was just warm enough, I’d see a few leaves start to come out, only for them to get hammered by freezes. Finally spring arrived, and it was able to grow. Surely, I’ll be able to harvest this year, I thought. Two weeks ago, finally got one “big enough” to try out. Strangely, it was much less red, and like an average rhubarb. And that beet flavor is still there. This repeated last week. This week, I see it’s ALREADY BOLTING! And the other rhubarb is only just getting started for the season. Said other rhubarb has done extremely well, and I’ve harvested for two springs now.

So, long story short, I’m super disappointed. Gurney’s is charging a premium price for these plants, but they’re giving sub-par performance and taste. I’m willing to give it another season or two, but this rhubarb is on notice.

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Maybe the best thing about this Rhubarb is the name? I saw the name of this in the Gurney catalogue and had a good chuckle.

Maybe they sent you a swiss chard instead? :slight_smile: j/k

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I planted a rhubarb 3-4 years ago. It bolted almost immediately and has done so each subsequent year. I never got much growth after it bolted and last year I removed the flower stem as soon as I recognized it.

I havne’t seen it return this year.

i’m thinking once this plant is programmed to bolt quickly, that’s all it can do.

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Funny enough, the couple stalks I allowed myself in the fall were nearly identical to the skinny red stalks of rainbow chard. Skinny, cupped/grroved, and red all the way through. There was still the sour part of the rhubarb flavor, but the overall flavor was off. I had initially wondered if the beet flavor was tied in with the color, but the color isn’t as strong this spring and I still taste it.

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Jay i have several Canada red rhubarb that are huge, productive plants. massive stalks and are a little sweeter and more tender than Victoria and are very red but still have that great rhubarb flavor. i eat some fresh off the plant. send me your addy and ill dig/ send you a chunk of root.

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Yeah, it always struck me how much they resemble each other.

Regarding the beet flavor w.r.t color, there’s also golden beets, which still tastes very much like a beet.

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I have found that most of gurney’s and Henry fields plants were of very poor quality. I do not buy anything from them and now from any nurseries. I grow from seed or do my own grafting. Pears, Calery roots. Sour cherries from seed. peaches from seeds, Citrus goes on Poncirus roots. Rhubarb from seed.

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My limited experience growing rhubarb…the red color goes away, in some plants more than others, from sunlight exposure. I don’t really like ordering from Gurney’s. I got bush cherries from them that were tiny, but have done fine. I ordered a Lucy Glo tree back before lots of other people did and the order went from processing to backordered to silently cancelled to I got an email a day or two ago notifying me that the order was cancelled. They did credit my card back when they cancelled the order without any communication at least though.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. I too was tempted to trial this variety but held off… I’m hoping your plant does better with age and the report improves in the future.

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I agree, the Gurney products may be hit or miss but I had no issues getting replacements/credit from the customer service.

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Any chance I could buy a crown or 2?

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id be glad to. contact me in oct. once they’re dormant and ill send you some. keep in mind they are very difficult to grow in z7 and above. many on here tried and lost them after a few years. maybe grow them in a pot indoors in summer and put outside in the winter would be better.

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My experience almost exactly matches ‘jcguarneri’. The first plant I got from Gurney’s was very small, and died. Customer service was good about providing a replacement, but couldn’t be sent until the next year. The replacement plant was a bit larger and survived, but has failed to thrive. At 3 years old, it’s still too small for any sort of normal harvest, but seems healthy. It also bolts very early.

After reading his review, I decided I should try a little to see how the flavor was. The thin stalk (smaller than I’d ever consider harvesting otherwise) had great color, but had an overtaste of “swiss chard”. I’ve gone from excited to reluctantly accepting. I’ll probably keep it rather than yank it but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in the Northeast. There are much better varieties here. Maybe it’s better in some other climate?

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no. i grow the northern ones but there are a few on here that grow it.

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It’s patented. Gurneys is the only legal way to get it. So far, it doesn’t seem worth the trouble to grow it legally or otherwise.

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Thanks. I was unaware of that.

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Central IL. I bought this variety several years ago and babied in a pot until it was ready to go in a permanent location and after three years it was getting choked out by raspberries so I transplanted it to a sunnier location last summer where it subsequently quickly died. I was thinking about reordering but given these comments I think I’ll just not worry about it and just go with a generic crimson variety from Indiana Berry and Plant co. I generally have an extremely green thumb, but seem to have terrible luck with rhubarb (it either dries up and dies or gets crown rot if I do water it). In years past I’ve gotten it shipped too early and tried to baby inside under grow lights before transplanting outside (which failed). I love rhubarb so next spring I’ll try again with a better prepped site/plan. sigh

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If you can, buy bare-roots locally. They have the best establishment rate. Also, they really appreciate a well-prepared, fertile location. Add loads of compost and they will be very happy.

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it should grow like a weed for you. here its very vigorous in my heavy clay soil. as long as its on a slight mound with some manure or compost occasionally, it should do well. i grow 4 patches of canada red from hartmanns. the 1st early seasons growth i regularly get 3ft. stalks with leaves nearly as large. i never amended my soil before planting. i just top dress composted manure around it in apr. and it does its thing.

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Here in VA I’ve had on and off success with the variety Victoria. Since they are often seed grown I’m not sure if they are truly a cultivar or more of a strain. I’ve started some from seed as well and it seems like some do better than others so it may be worth getting seed from somewhere like Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and growing a bunch out to see if you find one that best suits your climate.

I also got a few seeds in a trade for a type called German Red Wine and the one surviving seedling I have from a few that popped up actually seems to have done pretty well its first year in the ground here. It looks like the stems are thicker and redder than my Victoria so I’m hoping it continues to do well. Lately my biggest challenge is keeping them watered enough in the drought, plus the deer have eaten the tops off twice since they are so desperat for food. I expect that has slowed them down, but we’ll see how they do in the spring.

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