It’s at this time of year that I begin dreaming of home-grown rhubarb, of the satisfying snap of each crisp, pink stem as it’s pulled from the plant and its distinctive almost-sour tang as it stews in a pot of hot, sweet syrup. Of home-made rhubarb crumble, sticky rhubarb jam, and the enduring magic that is pink rhubarb lemonade which, dare I say it, is every bit as good as elderflower cordial. Who would have thought that a vegetable (because this is what it botanically is) so sour and unprepossessing could be so utterly transformed by the simple addition of sugar?
For those of us who’d happily eat it all year round, there are a few important points to bear in mind if you want to maximise the length of the rhubarb cropping season. The first, to guarantee a February-March harvest of its pink-stained, nutrient-rich, flavoursome sticks, is to choose an early-cropping variety or first-early as it’s technically known. The classic is Timperley Early, a resilient, scarlet-stemmed variety in cultivation since the 1920s.
For an even earlier crop, it’s possible to force this variety into growth either by using an upturned bucket or traditional rhubarb forcer – typically a tall bell-shaped pot with a lid at the top – to cover the plant, a technique much loved by Victorian gardeners who discovered that it also makes the stems more succulent. Forcing, which is only suitable for well-established plants, causes the leafy stalks to stretch upwards in search of light. It produces tender, etiolated sticks of harvestable size several weeks earlier than if they were left to grow naturally, especially if you also add an insulating blanket of straw. But bear in mind that this time-honoured method does come at a cost, reducing the plant’s vigour to the point where it will then need a year or two to recover before those juicy stems can be harvested again.
For a rhubarb patch that’s productive from February right through to August, you’ll also need to add a midseason variety such as Stockbridge Arrow, prized for its sweetness and exceptional flavour, along with the late-cropping, vigorous, highly productive Victoria, an enduring classic that’s been in cultivation for almost 200 years.
While rhubarb is typically an exceptionally long-lived and undemanding plant, providing the correct growing conditions is also important. A rich, deep, cool, moisture-retentive but free-draining soil enriched with well-rotted manure and in full sun suits it best. For this reason, rhubarb was often traditionally planted close to a manure or compost heap where the nutrient-rich run-off helped to both feed and water its hungry, thirsty roots. Just bear in mind that mature plants can reach a height and spread of 60cm x 1m, so it’s also important to give them plenty of space.
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Rhubarb’s popularity peaked in the Victorian era, when numerous, sometimes identical varieties were introduced by competing British nurseries. It became a highly regarded kitchen garden staple with a flourishing industry in Yorkshire, the so-called Rhubarb Triangle, dedicated to forcing the plants into early growth inside specially built rhubarb sheds.
Inexplicably, that popularity is not something that was ever enjoyed by the Chilean guava (Ugni molinae), whose sweet, delicious fruits are also known to have been a particular favourite of Queen Victoria’s. Late last autumn I came across a hedge of it growing in a pretty churchyard garden in Dingle, the plants’ branches weighed down with its ripe, juicy, dark-pink berries. These resemble a blueberry in shape and size but are sweeter and with a more complex but mouthwatering, slightly sherbetty flavour often compared to a mixture of strawberries and bubblegum.
Delicious eaten straight from the plant, they can also be used in pies, cakes, jams, jellies or to flavour a liqueur. Its scrumptious fruit aside, the Chilean guava also makes a fantastic hedge with neat, myrtle-like evergreen leaves and small, bell-shaped, intensely-scented, self-fertile pink flowers in late spring/early summer. Named varieties, some with colourfully variegated foliage such as Flambeau, are available, but the species itself makes a marvellous garden plant.
While best suited to milder gardens, this native of South American rainforests isn’t as tender as it looks and can survive temperatures down to as low as -10. Just make sure to give it a lightly shaded, sheltered spot to protect the flowers from frost damage (no flowers mean no fruit) and cool, moisture-retentive, slightly acidic soil.
England’s Queen Victoria also lent her name to another famously delicious fruit, the Victoria plum, first discovered growing in a garden in Sussex in the early 19th century as a sport (a naturally occurring variant of the parent plant). If you’ve ever eaten a ripe one straight off a tree on a sunny, late summer’s day, its dusky skin and sweet, juicy, yellow flesh still warm to the touch, then you’ll know that it bears only the scantiest resemblance to its flavourless shop-bought equivalent.
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Hardy, self-pollinating and heavy-cropping (so much so that it’s advisable to thin the fruit in May to avoid branches breaking under their weight), the Victoria plum was once grown in many large back gardens as a staple orchard tree. But it’s also now available grafted on to a range of dwarfing rootstocks that make it eminently suitable for small gardens. Just bear in mind that for a very compact tree suitable for container growing or fan-training against a wall, you’ll need a plant grown on the dwarfing Pixy or Ferlenain rootstocks. For a larger tree but one still suitable for smaller gardens, St Julien A rootstock is the one to go for.
Now, of course, is a great time of year to plant it as a bare-root specimen, making sure to give it a sunny, sheltered spot, ideally close to a south or west-facing wall and a fertile, moist but free-draining soil. This is also an excellent time to plant both rhubarb and the Chilean guava tree, three delicious, nutritious, highly productive kitchen garden plants that together will keep you in home-grown fruit almost all year round. Recommended stockists include all good garden centres along with online specialist suppliers such as futureforests.ie, irishseedsavers.ie and mrmiddleton.com
This Week
March is an excellent time of year to divide many kinds of hardy summer-flowering perennials as a way of maintaining their health and vigour as well as quickly producing new plants. Use a couple of garden forks to do this, carefully excavating around the rootball and then placing it on the ground before plunging the two forks back to back into the centre and then slowly levering the roots apart. This process can be repeated several times depending on the size of the parent plant. Species with fibrous root systems are most suitable for this technique. Those with brittle, fleshy root systems such as delphiniums are best divided into sections using a sharp knife or small saw.
March marks the beginning of one of the trickiest times of the year for those of us who love to raise plants from seed. Extremes of temperature are the biggest threat, from chilly winds and icy night frosts to soaring daytime temperatures on bright, sunny days in covered growing structures such as polytunnels and glasshouses. To prevent damage, keep layers of horticultural fleece close at hand and make sure to very gently ventilate during the daytime when required.
Dates For Your Diary: March 8th, 2025, RHSI Bellefield Gardens, Shinrone, Co Offaly, Gardening for The Future – a hands-on, skills-based, one-day workshop offered jointly by the RHSI and the IGPS focusing on nurturing soil life, supporting plant health and planet-friendly new ways of gardening, see rhsi.ie for booking details.
