Welcome from a fellow Appalachian 6B (NW NC).
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@colorado_orange … Rhubarb flowers attract a parasitic wasp that eats codling moth larvae. They are a wonderful companion plant for the orchard.
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Thanks for the info! I guess it’s time to add more rhubarb and let them flower. Do you know the name of the wasp?
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That is an excellent reason to keep blooms that I hadn’t heard of before. Thanks for sharing. As my plants mature ill plan to keep a bloom or two for this reason.
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That’s a good argument for planting a few selections that aren’t selected for reduced flowering tendency.
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This is a three year old rhubarb seedling that I’ve been growing. It’s flowering for the first time this year, but its flowers are at crown level with no stem. It will be interesting to see if it continues to flower without a stem in future years as that would be very energy saving for the plant.
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I’m trying to find more info about this but am struggling to locate any references. Do you have a source for this info or is it based on personal observations?
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Michael Phillips (author of The Holistic Orchard) spoke about the the rhubarb flower attracting a parasitic wasp that eats or rather inhabits the codling moth larvae in a seminar he gave for Living Web Farms called “Successful Biological Orcharding”. You can watch it free on YouTube.
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@Ribbons, how’s your rhubarb looking this spring? I bet it’s up and coming along nicely!
Mine came up pretty early thanks to an early spring and was subsequently frozen back a little, but it’s doing pretty well now.
G-Grandma Conley’s pieplants are leading the pack:
The red ones don’t look too bad either. The greener ones—probably confused by the variable temperatures—have been bolting like mad—but G-Grandma’s much less than the Victoria seedlings, etc.
I’ve started experimenting with rhubarb as a living mulch—planting rows between rows of gooseberries. The theory being, the big leaves will help cool the soil as the weather heats up—and if they start to encroach on the ribes, they can be chopped and dropped . . . or pie’d! 
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i too have been dividing and spreading my rhubarb and removing the comfrey. rhubarb is more vigorous and i can sell the stalks readily as the old folks here love it. the canada red variety has huge stalks and leaves. nearly 2xs bigger that victoria and is sweeter and more tender. they love a good dose of manure in the spring and mid summer.
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Canada Red is a good one. Yeah, Victoria’s kinda weedy and bolty, more fibrous, too. Must’ve been intended as mainly a forcing variety. Crimson Red has done fairly well here as well. Seems to take the humidity and heat a little better than Canada. Got some divisions of Valentine (which sounds good) a year or two ago, but those were the saddest, sorriest rhubarb crowns I’ve ever received, and they just rotted. (Don’t remember where I bought them now.) Never did try Kanga-Rhu, but may one of these days.
Glad you’ve found a market for your pieplant, Steve! I love the stuff myself—but I can’t eat it more than once a year. Too much sugar! But man, I could definitely go for some rhubarb dumplings right now . . . .
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i can eat canada red right off the plant with no sugar. very tasty. cant eat more than a stalk at a time as all that fiber cleans you out. love fresh strawberry rhubarb pie!
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there is a website i found a few years ago that has over 100 different rhubarb recipes. from sweet to savory. even main dish recipes. dont remember the name. think shes in PA and she grows 6 kinds of rhubarb. ill see if i can find it again.
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That’d be cool, actually! With all this rhubarb around, it would be nice to find some other culinary uses.
I’ve heard of folks making fruit leather with it. I’ve been intending to look that that up. Maybe use honey and/or mix with fruit? That might be interesting.
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I’ve had rhubarb fruit leather. It looks really cool like each bit of rhubarb is a chunk of striped glass
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cant find the one i found but heres a few others i found. simplelifeofacountrywife.com/30rhubarb-recipies/ insanelygoodrecipies.com/rhubarb-recipes/
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I’ll have to try some of these out! That rhubarb and strawberry smoothie sounds really good! Thanks, Steve!
@horna Neat! You make want to try the fruit leather even more.
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let me know how they turn out for you.
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French Harvest in Australia sells many types of rhubarb from seed. Several are heat tolerant and perpetual harvest, more or less. Some of the same genetics Luther Burbank used, (Topp’s).
The owner has done much breeding work, he should be commended!
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