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Strawberry rhubarb
I received the first of my rhubarb orders (Cherry Red from Parks) and potted them up. I'm starting a rhubarb trial at the Master Gardener research gardens. I've always wondered just how different all the various varieties are. I'll be growing Cherry Red, Canada Red, Chipman's Canada, Crimson Red, Valentine, MacDonald, and Victoria. The rhubarb I grew up with was just passed along neighbor to neighbor, relative to relative. If it was a fancy named varietal, no one knew it anymore.
The other question is how well they will do in this climate with our hot (sometimes) dry summers and cool, but not cold, wet winters, seldom below freezing. Still, I surveyed other MGs and found a few who had rhubarb growing for several years. Some folks said give it some shade. Others said theirs is doing fine in full sun. So I'll plant half in afternoon shade and half in full sun. This will be a multi-year trial to see which ones thrive, not just survive, in this climate. Whee!
Along with the rhubarb came, uh, well, they were on sale, and I, uh, well, . . . okay, I admit it, I bought a pair of strawberry bags. They're very silly and probably doomed. It's a tube of heavy duty plastic, sealed at the bottom and open at the top, with a hanger loop. You fill it up with potting soil then stick strawberry plants (or anything else) into the pre-cut slits. So I've got the pair of them hanging in my sunroom. They look rather ghastly at the moment. The strawberry sprouts are white because they sprouted in darkness, so they look like white grubs sticking out all over these green plastic tubes. Ew.
And I have no idea where I will hang them that will be both a) sunny and b) someplace I'll remember to water them. It'll only take forgetting about them once, and believe me, I am really good at forgetting to water plants in pots. My plants are ever so much safer in the ground. Why, oh why did I buy these?! Foolish me. Well, wish me luck.
The other question is how well they will do in this climate with our hot (sometimes) dry summers and cool, but not cold, wet winters, seldom below freezing. Still, I surveyed other MGs and found a few who had rhubarb growing for several years. Some folks said give it some shade. Others said theirs is doing fine in full sun. So I'll plant half in afternoon shade and half in full sun. This will be a multi-year trial to see which ones thrive, not just survive, in this climate. Whee!
Along with the rhubarb came, uh, well, they were on sale, and I, uh, well, . . . okay, I admit it, I bought a pair of strawberry bags. They're very silly and probably doomed. It's a tube of heavy duty plastic, sealed at the bottom and open at the top, with a hanger loop. You fill it up with potting soil then stick strawberry plants (or anything else) into the pre-cut slits. So I've got the pair of them hanging in my sunroom. They look rather ghastly at the moment. The strawberry sprouts are white because they sprouted in darkness, so they look like white grubs sticking out all over these green plastic tubes. Ew.
And I have no idea where I will hang them that will be both a) sunny and b) someplace I'll remember to water them. It'll only take forgetting about them once, and believe me, I am really good at forgetting to water plants in pots. My plants are ever so much safer in the ground. Why, oh why did I buy these?! Foolish me. Well, wish me luck.
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Rhubarb for me has always been a pass-along plant, no idea what varieties we have here. But the pass-along does well in our very-hot summer/mild and damp winter, as an understorey and in full sun. So no real help there. I shall be interested to learn your results.
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what, me water?
Re: what, me water?
I wish you (and your strawberry bags) the best of luck!
Our family plot of rhubarb was a lot like your description of what was around when we were growing up. varietal? for rhubarb? I wonder if dad remembers or ever knew what we had. He made some pretty lovely wine from the stuff for a number of years.
Re: I wish you (and your strawberry bags) the best of luck!
Actually, a nice non-dessert use is to make a fresh chutney by finely chopping rhubarb and chiles together. The sweet-sour-spicy combo is awesome.
rhubarb-chile chutney!
I'll be growing those Padrones this summer that I got from that fellow from the Happy Quail nursery.
We'll be seeing about how well we can keep to watering this summer with these strawbales. The conversation about-which continues merrrily over at the Dave's Garden forum -- http://davesgarden.com/ -- and there are actually a bunch of folks who are experimenting with the method this summer, enough to have started a Frappr map, heh!
Lise is just reading (being homd from work this day) and mentions aloud from the other room the phrase:
"rhubarb rose bread pudding with strawberry rose sauce"
http://www.frenchgardening.com/cuisine.tmpl
We thought we'd better pass that along to you just on name value alone. Mmm.
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