Kangarhu rhubarb

Whwoz · #1

Came across this variety on the Gurney's website while trying to find information on the Mammoth variety being sort out in another thread here. Seems to have a degree of heat tolerance that may allow some in warmer areas to grow rhubarb. If you can get a division I would suggest that over a smaller potted plant.

Whwoz · #2

The seed for this variety probably came from French Harvest, a small rhubarb farm with a breeding/seed collection program. They are located at Bittern, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula located between Western Port and Port Phillip Bay. According to their website, family farming of rhubarb is a multi-generational history and they have a good sized selection of seed. If people are interested, arrangements could be made to get seed over.

BlueDog · #3

@Whwoz I have a KangaRhu plant that’s just two years old now. It seems to be growing well. It did flower and while I am pretty adamant about removing flower stalks from rhubarb, this variety being somewhat new I decided to let it go to seed. The bad news is those d@mn Japanese Beetles must have an affinity for rhubarb flowers as I believe they’ve eaten them entirely. As a side note, the first year the stalks were extremely deep red and looked unlike any rhubarb I have. This year, the stalks look much more green and “normal”.

As for French Harvest, I too have ordered from them. I ordered their “Russian Giant” seeds. The envelope came surprisingly fast from Australia. However the “seeds” I received were a packet of what amounted to dust and no perceptible intact seeds. The rhubarb’s paper husk just being a wind sail, but I don’t believe I got what I paid for. I did go through my regular germination routine and nothing sprouted. I will give it a couple more days before I contact them, but I assume they’ll work with me.

Whwoz · #4

I hope that they deal with you @BlueDog , that Russian variety certainly seems to interesting and a large plant. I have enough plants and will not be ordering from them. Would be interesting to have a walk through their collection sometime.

BlueDog · #5

@Whwoz Thought I’d mention I heard from French Harvest, very pleasant and accommodating. Despite me offering to pay shipping or even buying an additional variety to combine shipping.

Here’s hoping my second attempt goes smoother.

BlueDog · #6

Posting this here just for documentation sake. I received my second shipment of seeds from French Harvest. They sent them at no cost to me, despite me trying and even demanding to pay shipping.

The seeds look better (marginally). Again a lot of them were smashed to dust. However there were several that looked like the rhubarb seeds I’m accustomed to. I’m currently sprouting them as we speak.

Hopefully I’ll have some success.