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I purchased a couple of rhubarb plants a while back and on the label it says to plant them in a shady corner (which I have done) / ideal for forcing but when reading all my gardening books they all say that rhubarb should be planted in a sunny position.

Am I missing a trick here, should it be shady or should it be sunny??

I would have thought shady since forcing you put a pot over them but I am no expert so could be wrong.

Thanks
MEW

We've got rhubarb all over the place - sunny, shady, damp, dry. All of the plants produce. Maybe if they were ideally placed we'd get more - but we already get plenty. Actually, I think rhubarb couldn't care less where it is.

EDIT: The mere fact that rhubarb has huge leaves tends to suggest that its natural habitat is in shade - but as I've said, our sunny ones seem to do just as well.

good enough for me then

Thanks x

Ah - just thought. I assume you know not to take anything from the plants in the first year?

we have two rhubarb plants one in a shady spot, one in a sunny spot. the sunny one has thrived and the shady one is miniscule and has barely produced.

Yep MKG read up on that one. Although they're too small to pick anything from at the moment anyway but am just leaving them to do their own thing and will hopefully be able to harvest next year.

Do I cut them back at the end of their growing season or do they just die back naturally?

And I thought this thread contained a recipe for rhubarb champagne...

I'm just into rhubarb wine big style - Cairn o'Mohr make some really nice stuff - hoping to make my own this year, too - and a recipe for rhubarb bubbly would be very welcome!

No, don't cut them back - they look scruffy for a while, but they're still piling that solar energy into the roots, and that's the whole point. Next year ... start rhubarbing.

EDIT: Ina - face it, girl - you're into wine big time, let alone rhubarb

MKG wrote: EDIT: Ina - face it, girl - you're into wine big time, let alone rhubarb

Oy - that's a false allegation!

ina wrote:And I thought this thread contained a recipe for rhubarb champagne...

yep, same here, that is what I was after

For those of you who didn't know that Champagne is a type of rhubarb ( I say again ) try here ...

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/recipe-wine.html#TOC64

To turn any still recipe into a fizzy one, do the half-teaspoonful of sugar in a bottle act, tie down well and hope for the best.

MKG wrote:For those of you who didn't know that Champagne is a type of rhubarb ( I say again ) try here ...

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/recipe-wine.html#TOC64

To turn any still recipe into a fizzy one, do the half-teaspoonful of sugar in a bottle act, tie down well and hope for the best.

... and wear protective headgear...