I will trudge out in the rain and check this.

No signs of Rhubarb, but the blueberries and raspberries are leafing out. Isn't rain wonderful?

Yep! Glad you said something, I moved some last Fall and forgot. It's just poking up. It has been mild here (last year this time there was ice on the ground) and mine wasn't mulched. Hope yours comes up soon!

Alfie,
Mine is poking up about 4 inches.
Bonnie

G'Day!
i've tried rhubarb in four or five locations so far. FINALLY i see ONE leaf coming up!

Well, now i know where they do well (or at least OK) here, so i'm ready to get a dozen more plants! i am just SO determined to have home-grown strawberry-rhubarb pie!

- happy gardening,
-vlad

yes mine is.

I've put "dig up leaves that may or may not be on top of rhubarb" on my to-do list for this evening.

Vlad, STRAWBERRY-rhubarb? Why spoil perfectly good strawberries by adulterating them with rhubarb? Why spoil perfectly good rhubarb by adulterating it with strawberries? Besides, as Barbara Damrosch points out (I only cite her when she agrees with me), they don't even appear at the same time. You have to freeze the rhubarb and then wait for the strawberries.

Vlad... I make rhubarb and strawberry cobbler and it's delicious. It pairs the sweet with the tart tastes of both fruits. I need to buy more rhubarb too. Got a good pie recipe to share?

Bonnie

OK, I found two rhubarb crowns last night, but no signs of life. I will come back next week, I guess.

80F forced an inch of Rhubarb leaf tip to appear above ground today. Gosh the yard exploded out there! Even full bloom on the magnolia. Guess that means frost tonight. So Alfie, you're in colder area than I am and your rhubarb should be along soon.

G'Day!

- Alphie - strawberries and rhubarb shouldn't go in the same pie? i guess that means baking a just-strawberries pie and a just-rhubarb pie and serving a slice of each on the plate. Of course, if there was a third slice of pie, one could use them to corral a larger scoop of icecream in the middle...

- That rhubarb leaf that came up? GONE! But. Another rhubarb a few feet away has now put up a leaf. We will see what we will see.

- Pie.
-vlad (who hasn't lost a pound!)

No no no, Vlad. FIRST, when the rhubarb comes up, you make rhubarb pie. (Ice cream is optional but almost always à propos.) THEN, when the strawberries come up, you make strawberry shortcake, not strawberry pie (with biscuit dough, not sponge cake, and don't skimp on the whipped cream). (Champagne is optional but also almost always à propos.)

Good thread. This will be my first time to plant both rhubarb and strawberries, in a very small area (caged from deer and cats and dogs) What are the growing conditions I need to consider? Especially rhubarb-- sun/shade, how much room? I think I know strawberries: lots of sun and room for runners, right? The plants are arriving next week.

Thanks!
effieshu@yahoo.com

PS You guys neglected to mention chocolate dipped strawberries... I've never cooked or eaten rhubarb, can you stew/preserve it like strawberries? Can you eat it over pancakes?

I think maybe I need to freeze or keep (somehow) my strawberries and rhubarb, until I can make a pie to bring to the MD swap in May??? Or should that be rhubarb cobbler?
Bonnie

My rhubarb is about 3 inches tall after the wed 80 degree day here. Have planted 6 new roots that are just starting to bud out. Plan to freeze some of it casue would of loved some rhubarb this winter.

G'Day!
- Alphie, my dear, i am originally from Newton, outside of Boston, and New Hapshire, up in Yankee-land. i think if i tried to make biscuit dough here in Southern Maryland i would be lynched. So perhaps i should forget the biscuit and just put the strawberries in the champagne?

- i need more strawberry recipies; i'm expecting more this year than last, but really don't think i should make more than the same dozen gallons of jam that i put up last year.

- Or maybe i just need an icecream maker...

- i've got another bed half built (when is that not the case?); soon, i'll be needing a half dozden more rhubarb plants; who's tried what varieties and what do you think about them? Is this something where, as with my fruit trees, i should get each a different variety?

- treble /effishu, what kind of strawberry plants are you thinking of getting? i have extras.

- Happy gardening,
-vlad

Vlad, as you know darn well, you aren't any more un-biscuit-ish than I am -- or if you are, it's a difference you'd need an electron microscope to measure -- and I make them. So you can too. Just be brave! (Or you can go straight for the strawberries and champagne.)

Treble, you can freeze rhubarb cut up and raw, or you can cook it and then freeze it, or you can can it, or you can make jam. As for how to eat it, whatever you use applesauce for, you can use cooked rhubarb for -- unless you're a fan of apples and peanut butter; I'm not sure that rhubarb and peanut butter would be a good combination. Keep in mind, though, that you have to use unbelievable amounts of sugar. Every year I (not a fan of sweet sweets) look at my rhubarb pie recipe, and every year I think to myself, "It can't possibly need all that sugar!" and every year I decide that yes, it does.

Alfie,
who now has two of five rhubarbs showing signs of life

Okay, yes my rhubarb IS up. And the really big one is now tranplanted by the baby ones. When I transplanted it, I harvested my first stalks, but I am sort of scared of them. They are only red at the bottom and halfway up...then they are green and get really green near the leaves. Can you eat the whole stem....is there oxalate in the stem near the leaf? This is kind of freaking me out...maybe I should just cook them up and hope for the best. Any suggestions...or thoughts?

I like my rhubarb unadulterated. Not that I don't like strawberries but, once again, sans chocolate.
strawberries here

I am the only one I know locally that makes rhubarb jam. It's wonderful on biscuits and terrific as a topping for ice cream and rhubarb cobbler is a favorite of mine.

I don't have plants but have a friend with a small bed. She doesn't like rhubarb soooooooo. How lucky am I?

Debbi

Irishheart, you can eat the whole stem.

Debbi, I made rhubarb jam once, and it was so wonderful that I decided that I should never make it again. Six pints of rhubarb jam should have lasted a whole lot longer than they did :-).

Mom mom would talk off the leaves toss in the compost pile, then cut up and simmer in a small pan with alot of sugar.

Now my grandmother who dearly loved rhubarb would peal it take each and every string off of it. Hers also had a lot of sugar added, it was very creamy smooth.

I am lazy, chop toss with some water lots of sugar and simmer. Been drooling over my 2 plants that are going gun ho this year.

We have two established rhubarb plants, one green stalked that is doing fine this year. The other is a Canadian red that sent up 3" stalks this year and then died back. Since then it has sent up one inch stalks that just set there. We water the plant every day with a 1/2 teaspoon of Miracle Grow per gallon of water. Our other plants are doing fine, but this one just will not grow. What shall we do?

my rhubarb is not up yet AT ALL and I have been presuming the person who I hired to weed cut it back too far. OR our massachusetts winter was too mild? usually by now we have it. I see NOTHING only soil and am worried. if my gardener did cut it back too far, will it come back next hyear