My Rhubarb has a flower - should it?

[Katymac]

I'm not very good at gardenig - but love my stewed rhubarb

I went out to see if any was ready and there is a big broccoli looking flower growing out the top

Help do I cut it off?
Ignor it?

Serve it with custard?

(well I told you I wasn't very good)

It's gone to seed.

The stem it's on will be woody and tough, so pull out and throw away that stem - and eat the rest before they go too!

no
chop the top off

If it's gone to seed it needs a good seeing to. Remove all large thick stems with big leaves - you can cook anything that's not too woody. Only small stems and emerging leaves. Water it well, and it should rejuvenate.

My ds2 (8) thinks it's a treat to be allowed to go into the garden, harvest the rhubarb, but the leaves in the compost; bring it in; wash it; chop it; add water and sugar; come and ask me to switch the cooker on [!]; then stew it

So ours doesn't get chance to go to seed!

Don't think you are suppose d to compost rhubarb leaves something to do with them being poisonous?

i heard that too about rhubarb leaves, always used to put in green bin though

Oh I'd never heard that. Tbh I just throw everything on the compost: I don't discriminate at all. That's what my dad used to do anyway.

Oh I read that this week about rhubarb leaves being extremely poisonous

how would it affect the compost, please? I can see why we shouldn't eat them, but what will it do to the compost?

Potato plants too. I guess that when the compost is planting compost it could go back into a plant?

I only know it 'cos of a tour of the poison gardens at Alnwick Castle

lol at the title of this thread Katy-mac.... I don't think rhubarb actually ever does anything that it shouldn't.

MrsWho so be dense but do you mean that the poison from the rhubarb leaves could end up in another plant and we could eat that?

Or that it might harm other plants?

I am aware these are probably very dumb questions but I know bugger all about gardening and am curious

"Many folks have been concerned about adding rhubarb leaves to their compost piles. If the leaves are poisonous, they must be bad for compost as well, since rhubarb stalks contain a high concentration of oxalic acid which slightly toxic. What actually occurs when rhubarb is added to a compost pile is that the oxalic acid is decomposed and pH balanced rather quickly. People do not eat compost piles as a rule anyway, and even if a child were to eat compost dirt, there would be problems other than residuals from the decomposing rhubarb stalks. Experience has also shown that the level of acid does not inhibit the microbial action of composting. Compost piles which were nearly all rhubarb leaves and stalks have decomposed very nicely and the compost has behaved like ordinary compost and no inhibition of plant growth was noticed from the compost. Note that some items are a problem for composting including: eucalyptus leaves and bark, omnivore (cat and dog) pet feces, diapers, meat scraps, and treated lumber. "

From the web

thank you Pruni

er, why have you got an er?

Don't get me wrong, it looks very fetching

just wondered what I had missed

ooh actually it is an erl isn't it? What's an erl?

Was just going to answer F&Z with well that was just my assumption on being told not to compost them , but apparantly its fine so just ignore me

MrsWho - tell me about Alnwick Castle: when did you go? Did you like the treehouse? We've been told by friends that the poisonous garden tour is great.

When we were in Northumberland it was too wet and dismal to contemplate a visit there! But it's still on our list of things to do.

I was just feeling a bit Swiss yesterday
So made myself more swiss-sounding
No reason, really

Ha that looked a bit desperate
Hey look at me I'm mad!
Just do ignore

Roisin -we went last year, its good, loads of stuff on tours of the cstle/poion gardens/Harry Potter tour
BUT its expensive, pay separatly for house /gardens and I couldn't find any tokens/vouchers for it.

Dd1 liked the poison tour (it was actually her that asked) but dd2 was playing up and I had to take her out before she ate something

Fantastic water fountain and if you go on a nice daytake clothes to change into as you can get wet!

I had to click on this thread to hear about Rhubarb's flower.

Yes, MrsWho, we tend to use vouchers or tokens for everything; and it's a real shock when you end up paying full price for something!

Oh - I'll cut it off them

& there was I thinking it looked pretty

There's a very expensive florist in Selfridges who sells rhubarb that's gone to seed - charges about £8 a stalk, from what I remember (it was last year and I was too busy sniggering at the poor saps buying the stuff to make an exact note of the price).

So if you like it - stick it in a vase and pretend you bought it from somewhere poncey!

& I put it on the compost

I would have done too