On 5/01/2016 9:41 PM, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Fran Farmer wrote:

Rhubarb is pretty robust so I would split it if you need to.

What it can't take is hot, dry summers.

That's news to me Nick. I've got 4 patches of rhubarb and they've all a
number of years of our long hot summers with at least 5 or more days of
survived +40 temps in each without watering for a whole season if needs
be. There will be no stems to cook, but survive it will. I'm only
watering one patch now because this is another long dry summer and the
other 3 are as sick as brown dogs because I've had to let them go, but
they are still alive and will get through to the end of this summer now
as we've had an inch of rain since September. They'll come good again
next spring.

Interesting. It's not just my experience, either. I can think of
many explanations, but all are speculative without further evidence.
It is possible that what kills them here is the lack of any decent
growing season under such circumstances, because of our winter
darkness and (in Cambridge) often late spring. So they weaken and
die (which is what happened).

You've now got me wondering about rhubarb's origins which may have some
bearing on why it might have died on you.