Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .
However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.
Who would sell such plants please?

janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Amersham Gardening Association
http://www.amersham-gardening.net

Janet Tweedy wrote:
Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .
However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.
Who would sell such plants please?

Google suggests he

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalo...th=21_22_23_40

I ordered some stuff from them this year and had no problems.

The RHS AGM document (which I often use as a starting point when I want
to grow something new and don't really know what I'm looking for) lists
Stein's Champagne and Hawke's Champagne, but doesn't have anywhere to
buy them. Pretty much the same with all of their listed rhubarb
varieties except Timperley Early, unfortunately.

James

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb,

Why?

Mine has been in for ten years and comes up like Gunnera every year with
increased vigour.

Why not just feed your existing clump early in the year. Like, now.

--
Brian

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .

Four feet is ample.

However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.

Horses for courses. I'm growing Timperley Early, though champers rhubarb
responds well to gross feeding.

Who would sell such plants please?


Why don't you just take cuttings/splittings from the outside of the crown?

And remember - the old codgers always said: don't even pull a single
stick in the first year. So, if you just take a cutting or cuttings from
the outside and feed it well, you can still have rhubarb from the old
crown.

Even old crowns like a feed, and respond well. (I've been piling kitchen
waste and fresh horse manure round my rhubarb, but not too close to the
crown. In a while the whole lot will be covered with well-rotted
straw-mould and capped with half-rotted straw to keep the warmth of the
horsh and waste in.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention to
janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole including
old shoes to help feed it .

Yes that 's the way to grow good rubab. You may assume that everything
includes Puke and any other bodily secretions.

However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.
Who would sell such plants please?

Plenty places sell the chamapagne variety-much used in France for making an
overpriced fizzzy drink.
I certainly would not get rid of your current clump-just split it and
rejeuvinate as suggested by others.

Rue
janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Amersham Gardening Association
http://www.amersham-gardening.net

In article om, La
Puce writes

Janet Tweedy wrote:

Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .
However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.
Who would sell such plants please?

Blackmoor Nurseries
Blackmoor Liss
Hampshire, GU33 6BS
Tel: 01420 473576
Fax: 01420 487813




They don't have the Champagne varieties, they just call one of their
plants 'Champagne'
Some nurseries say that champagne rhubarb is an early forced one but
there are distinct varieties named '---- Champagne'
The two I thought sounded good to try were Stein's Champagne and
'Hawke's Champagne' though there is one called 'Bucks Champagne' which
is quite rare.
Someone emailed to say they thought J Tweedie might have them
(Coincidence or what?)

--
Janet Tweedy
Amersham Gardening Association
http://www.amersham-gardening.net

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:





They don't have the Champagne varieties, they just call one of their
plants 'Champagne'
Some nurseries say that champagne rhubarb is an early forced one but
there are distinct varieties named '---- Champagne'
The two I thought sounded good to try were Stein's Champagne and
'Hawke's Champagne' though there is one called 'Bucks Champagne' which
is quite rare.
Someone emailed to say they thought J Tweedie might have them
(Coincidence or what?)


Try Ken Muir. If he hasn't got it, I'll ask my local fiendish market
stallholder if he can get hold of any. ('Swhere I got my Timperley
Early.)

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

In article , Rusty Hinge
2 writes


Try Ken Muir. If he hasn't got it, I'll ask my local fiendish market
stallholder if he can get hold of any. ('Swhere I got my Timperley
Early.)



Thanks Rusty, though looking at J Tweedie's, he's got umpteen varieties.
I wanted to make another patch of rhubarb as we eat loads, but the one I
inherited when I moved here is a bit coarse and quite late in spite of
feeding and so on.
He's also got umpteen fruit tree varieties which seem quite
interesting..............

The Champagne types seem to be earlyish and sweeter. I heard about them
at Chenies Manor just up the road where they grow Buckinghamshire
Champagne but they don't sell any plants etc.(I did beg!)

When would be a good time to buy and plant?

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

The RHS have given the Champagne ones Awards of Merit, not much use if
you can't actually buy it and grow it...............

Janet


--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article , Rusty Hinge
2 writes
The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .

Four feet is ample.


I thought it might be nearer 4 feet now that I've got raised beds, even
that seem achievable!


Horses for courses. I'm growing Timperley Early, though champers rhubarb
responds well to gross feeding.



I've given the plant two bags of well rotted manure for the past four
years but the stalks are quite coarse and thick even when young. I was
told to pick the stalks when the leaf was flat out, but perhaps I pick
too late?


Why don't you just take cuttings/splittings from the outside of the crown?

Done that a couple of times but seems to still not achieve that very
sweet unstringy stalk.


Even old crowns like a feed, and respond well. (I've been piling kitchen
waste and fresh horse manure round my rhubarb, but not too close to the
crown. In a while the whole lot will be covered with well-rotted
straw-mould and capped with half-rotted straw to keep the warmth of the
horsh and waste in.



Would one of those hay bales that they sell for rabbits etc, do?

--
Janet Tweedy
Amersham Gardening Association
http://www.amersham-gardening.net

Rupert wrote:
[...]
I certainly would not get rid of your current clump-just split it and
rejeuvinate as suggested by others.

Except that Janet _has_ tried all the usual cures, and still gets a kind
of rhubarb she doesn't like. Time to replace, I'd say. Remember that not
all rhubarb is of a named variety: I once grew some from a packet of
seed just for fun, and the variation was remarkable. Janet's may be the
result of a similar experiment by somebody back down the line, or even a
vegetative descendant of some long-forgotten poor variety: a fresh start
sounds sensible to me.

Anybody tried eating its relative, Rheum palmatum?

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Rupert wrote:
[...]
I certainly would not get rid of your current clump-just split it and
rejeuvinate as suggested by others.

Except that Janet _has_ tried all the usual cures, and still gets a kind
of rhubarb she doesn't like. Time to replace, I'd say. Remember that not
all rhubarb is of a named variety: I once grew some from a packet of
seed just for fun, and the variation was remarkable. Janet's may be the
result of a similar experiment by somebody back down the line, or even a
vegetative descendant of some long-forgotten poor variety: a fresh start
sounds sensible to me.


But it appears she has been leaving it too late before picking.. She needs
to take a look at the Wakefield Rhubarb sheds. Same old stuff thats always
been grown AFAIK, but picked very young.
As a compromise try a new variety but don't chuck out all the old stuff.

Anybody tried eating its relative, Rheum palmatum?

No not yet but I do occasionaly eye up the Gunnera:-)

Mike.

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .
However I can only find ordinary stuff. I would like on of the champagne
varieties that are supposed to be the best type.
Who would sell such plants please?

janet

From Garden News dated 1/3/06

Chris Bowers & Sons, Dept GN
Whispering trees Nursery,
Wimbothsham
Norfolk
PE34 8QB

www chrisbowers.co.uk

Stockbridge Arrow
Timperley Early
Victoria
Fentoons Special
Prince Albert
Champagne
Brandy Carr Scarlet

Could always ask them if they have one of the champagne varieties you are
after.

Dave

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

When would be a good time to buy and plant?


Now, or earlier.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

Even old crowns like a feed, and respond well. (I've been piling kitchen
waste and fresh horse manure round my rhubarb, but not too close to the
crown. In a while the whole lot will be covered with well-rotted
straw-mould and capped with half-rotted straw to keep the warmth of the
horsh and waste in.



Would one of those hay bales that they sell for rabbits etc, do?


Well, it'd act as an insulator, but you need to get the ground warm
(hotbed effect of the horsh^H^H^ and kitchen waste) first, or it'll just
keep it cold. I'm using the rotted stuff as a soil improver and moisture
retainer.

And hay is horribly expensive. In a rural area you can usually find old
straw for nothing.

There's a vast straw stack over the road from me, and I've permission to
plunder the mould and straw and stuff for however much I need/want.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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