How to Grow Rhubarb at Home in the UK

Rhubarb is one of the most rewarding things a beginner can grow, because it asks for so little once it is settled in. Plant a single crown, give it some patience and a yearly feed, and it will hand you armfuls of tart pink stems every spring for a decade or more. This guide covers everything from choosing a variety to harvesting without weakening the plant — all written for UK gardens, with UK timings.

Why grow rhubarb

Rhubarb earns its place in almost any garden. It is a long-lived perennial — a plant that comes back year after year from the same roots — so unlike most of the crops in our vegetable-growing guides, you plant it once and harvest it for years. A healthy, well-fed crown can keep cropping for ten to fifteen years before it needs renewing, which makes it remarkable value for the small effort involved.

It is also genuinely easy. Rhubarb is tough, hardy across the whole of the UK, and largely ignored by the pests and diseases that plague more delicate crops. There is no sowing fuss, no hardening off, no greenhouse required — just a crown in the ground and a bit of patience. If you are nervous about growing fruit, rhubarb is a confidence-builder in the same way that the easiest crops for beginners are among the vegetables. Its big, dramatic leaves and the magic of forcing also make it a great plant to grow with children — see getting kids growing.

And one plant goes a long way. A single mature crown will comfortably feed a family through the spring, with stems for crumbles, compotes, jam and the freezer. Many growers find one or two plants is plenty — rhubarb is generous to the point of glut, much like courgettes later in the season. It is also one of the very first things to crop, arriving in April when little else is ready, which makes it feel like a real treat after a long winter.

Botanically it is a vegetable, but everyone treats it as a fruit because of how it is used, so you will find it sitting happily alongside strawberries and raspberries in the kitchen and in this section of the site.

Choosing a variety

You do not need to agonise over varieties, but a little thought pays off — some crop earlier, some are sweeter, and some have better colour. Buy a named variety rather than an unnamed crown, because you know what you are getting. Here are four reliable choices widely available in the UK:

• Timperley Early — the classic early variety and the best choice if you want to force for the earliest stems (more on that below). It is vigorous, reliable and produces long stalks from very early in the season. If you only grow one, this is a safe bet.
• Victoria — an old, dependable maincrop variety with thick stems and a good, balanced flavour. It is heavy-cropping and forgiving, which makes it ideal for a first-time grower. The stems are greener than some, but the flavour is excellent.
• Champagne (sometimes sold as Early Champagne) — prized for its slender, sweet, deep-pink stems and lovely flavour. A favourite for forcing and for anyone who wants the prettiest, tenderest rhubarb.
• Stockbridge Arrow — a more modern, high-yielding variety with bright red stems and good resistance to bolting (running to flower early). It holds its colour and flavour well and is a strong all-round performer.

A practical tip: if you have room for two crowns, pair an early variety like Timperley Early with a maincrop like Victoria. The early one gives you the first picking, the maincrop keeps you in stems for longer, and together they stretch your rhubarb season from April well into June.

Where to grow it

Rhubarb is not fussy, but it crops far better in the right spot, and because it will live in that spot for over a decade it is worth getting right first time.

Sun. Give it an open, sunny or lightly shaded position. Full sun produces the heaviest crops, though rhubarb tolerates a bit of shade better than most fruit, which makes it useful for that slightly awkward corner. Avoid deep, permanent shade and avoid frost pockets where cold air settles.

Soil. This is where the real difference is made. Rhubarb is a hungry, thirsty plant with a deep root system, so it wants deep, rich, moisture-retentive soil that does not dry out in summer or waterlog in winter. The single best thing you can do is improve the ground generously before planting. Dig in plenty of well-rotted manure or garden compost — our guide to improving your soil walks through exactly how to do this, and it is worth reading before you plant. Heavy clay benefits from added organic matter to open it up; light sandy soil benefits from it to hold moisture.

Space. Each plant needs room. A mature crown spreads to around 75cm to 1m across, with large leaves that shade out neighbours, so give it space and do not crowd it against other plants.

Planting crowns

Rhubarb is almost always grown from a crown (a dormant clump of roots with one or more growing buds) rather than from seed, because seed-raised plants are variable and slow. You buy crowns either bare-root in the dormant season or pot-grown during the growing season.

The best time to plant a bare-root crown is while it is dormant, any time from late autumn to early spring (November to March), as long as the ground is not frozen or waterlogged. Pot-grown plants can go in at almost any time of year provided you keep them watered. You can check timings for this and other crops with our planting calendar.

To plant:

1. Prepare the ground. Clear all perennial weeds — once rhubarb is established, weeding among its roots is awkward, so deal with them now. Dig in a generous barrowload of well-rotted manure or compost across the planting area.
2. Dig a hole wide enough for the roots to spread comfortably.
3. Set the crown at the right depth. This is the one detail people get wrong. The growing buds (the pink or red nubs on top) should sit just at the soil surface — about 2–3cm below, with the tips visible or only barely covered. If you bury the buds too deep, the crown is prone to rotting; if you plant too high, it dries out.
4. Firm the soil gently around the roots and water it in well.
5. Space multiple crowns about 75cm to 1m apart in each direction to give each room to mature.

After planting, water in dry spells and keep the area weed-free while the crown settles in. Then comes the hardest part for an eager gardener.

The first-year rule and harvesting

Do not harvest in the first year. This is the golden rule of rhubarb. A newly planted crown needs its whole first season to build a strong root system, and every stem you pull is energy taken away from that. It is tempting, but resist — leave all the stems on the plant through year one and you will be rewarded with a far stronger, more productive plant for years to come.

Here is the simple schedule to follow:

• Year one: harvest nothing. Let the plant establish.
• Year two: take only a few stems — pull perhaps a third of what is there, and only the strongest ones.
• Year three onwards: harvest freely through the season, stopping by midsummer.

When you do harvest, pull rather than cut. To remove a stem, hold it near the base, then pull and twist gently so it comes cleanly away from the crown. Cutting leaves a stub that can rot back into the plant; pulling removes the whole stalk cleanly. Take the outer, more mature stems first and always leave at least a third to half of the stems on the plant so it can keep feeding itself.

Stop harvesting by midsummer, around the end of June or into July. From that point on, leave the plant alone for the rest of the season so it can use its leaves to build up reserves in the crown for next spring. Picking too late into summer weakens the plant and gives you thinner stems the following year. Letting it rest from July onwards is the single biggest thing you can do to keep a crown cropping well for years.

If your plant throws up a tall flower spike (it "bolts"), cut it out at the base as soon as you see it. Flowering drains energy that should go into the stems, so removing the flower head keeps the plant productive.

Feeding and mulching a hungry plant

Rhubarb is a heavy feeder, and the difference between a neglected crown and a well-fed one is dramatic. Feeding it well is the main job of the year, and it is an easy one.

In autumn or early winter, once the leaves have died back, spread a thick layer of well-rotted manure or garden compost — a mulch — around the crown. Apply it 5–7cm deep, but keep it clear of the central buds themselves, because piling material directly over the crown can cause it to rot. This annual mulch feeds the plant slowly, locks in moisture for the dry months ahead, and suppresses weeds all in one go. If you keep a compost heap, rhubarb is one of the best places to use it — and if you don't yet, our guide to making compost shows how to turn garden and kitchen waste into exactly this kind of rich mulch.

In spring, as growth begins, you can give an extra boost with a general-purpose fertiliser such as pelleted chicken manure or a homemade plant feed or balanced granular feed scattered around (not on) the crown and lightly worked in. This is optional if you mulch well, but it pushes a hungry plant to crop harder.

Watering matters too. Rhubarb hates drying out. In a dry spring or summer, water deeply and regularly — a good soak once or twice a week is far better than a daily splash. A plant under drought stress produces thin, stringy stems and is more likely to bolt. The autumn mulch helps enormously here by holding moisture in the soil.

Forcing for early stems

Forcing is one of rhubarb's loveliest tricks. By excluding light from a dormant crown in late winter, you encourage it to produce exceptionally tender, sweet, pale-pink stems several weeks earlier than usual — the gourmet "forced rhubarb" you see in the shops at a premium price.

The principle is simple: in January or February, cover an established crown (one that is at least three years old) with a tall, light-proof container. A traditional terracotta forcing pot is the classic choice and looks beautiful, but an upturned bucket, dustbin or large pot works just as well as long as it blocks out all light and gives the stems room to grow upward. Starved of light, the plant draws on its stored reserves and sends up long, blanched, deliciously tender stalks that are ready to pull two to four weeks ahead of the open crop.

There is a catch, and it is an important one: forcing exhausts the crown, because the plant burns through its reserves to produce those early stems. So never force the same crown two years running — give a forced plant at least a full year, ideally two, to recover before forcing it again. If you love forced rhubarb, the trick is to have two or three crowns and rotate which one you force each year.

For the full method — pots, timing, after-care and how to get the sweetest stems — see our dedicated guide to forcing rhubarb.

Dividing crowns to renew

Even the best-kept rhubarb eventually slows down. After roughly five to ten years, you may notice the centre of the crown becoming woody and the stems getting thinner and more numerous. This is the plant's way of telling you it needs renewing — and dividing it is free, easy, and gives you spare plants into the bargain.

Divide in late autumn or winter while the plant is fully dormant. The method:

1. Dig up the whole crown with a fork, lifting as much root as you can.
2. Using a spade or sharp knife, cut the crown into sections. Each piece should have at least one strong, healthy growing bud and a good portion of root attached.
3. Discard the old, woody, central part of the crown — the vigour is in the younger outer sections.
4. Replant each healthy division straight away, at the correct depth (buds just at the surface), spaced as for new crowns, in ground freshly enriched with compost or manure.

Treat each division like a brand-new plant: do not harvest in its first year, take only lightly in the second, and let it build up. Dividing every five to ten years keeps your rhubarb supply going indefinitely, and a single healthy crown can quickly become three or four to share with friends.

Problems

Rhubarb is one of the most trouble-free crops you can grow, and most plants sail through life untouched. There are only a couple of issues worth knowing about, and both are uncommon.

Crown rot is the main one to watch for. It is caused by a soil-borne fungus or bacteria attacking the crown, usually where drainage is poor or the crown was planted too deep. Affected plants produce weak, spindly growth, the buds turn brown and soft, and the centre of the crown becomes a rotten, smelly mess. There is no cure — dig up and destroy a badly affected plant (do not compost it), and do not replant rhubarb in the same spot. You can largely prevent it by planting on well-drained soil, setting the crown at the correct shallow depth, and keeping mulch clear of the central buds.

Honey fungus is a more serious, though rarer, soil-borne fungus that attacks the roots of many woody and perennial plants and can kill rhubarb. The tell-tale signs are a white, mushroom-smelling fungal growth under the bark at the base, and sometimes honey-coloured toadstools nearby in autumn. There is no chemical control available to gardeners. If you confirm honey fungus, remove the affected plant and as much root as possible, and avoid replanting susceptible plants in that area. Thankfully it is uncommon in most gardens.

Bolting (running to flower) is not a disease but a stress response, usually to hot, dry conditions, age, or an unsettled spring. Cut out any flower spike at the base as soon as it appears, keep the plant well watered and mulched, and it is rarely a problem. Established varieties like Stockbridge Arrow are bred to resist it.

Beyond these, slugs may nibble emerging stems in spring but rarely cause real harm, and rhubarb is one of the few crops that the local fox or pigeon will leave entirely alone. If you hit a problem with another crop, our problem-solving guides cover the most common UK growing troubles.

What you'll need

You barely need anything to grow rhubarb — a crown and some compost will do. But a couple of bits make planting and forcing easier, and a named crown from a reputable supplier is the one purchase genuinely worth making. We've suggested these only after explaining the how and why above.

If you plan to force for early stems, a traditional terracotta forcing pot is a lovely (if optional) addition — though an upturned bucket does the same job for free.

A reliable first harvest

Rhubarb really is one of the most forgiving crops in the garden. Plant a good crown in rich soil, hold your nerve through that first no-harvest year, feed it well each autumn and stop picking by midsummer — and it will reward you with the first fruit of the year, every year, for over a decade. From there you can experiment with forcing for early stems, divide your crown to make more plants, and pair it with strawberries and raspberries for a soft-fruit corner that practically looks after itself. Browse the rest of our fruit-growing guides for what to grow alongside it.