Habitat: high mountain slopes
Soil: well drained
Height: 40 cm?
Flowering: summer
The rhubarbs include some small alpine species, and some dramatic giants. They all provide unusual and interesting structure, often with good autumn colour.
Rheum CC4845 is a species from the Himalaya that we know very little about, except that it has grown very quickly in the few months since the seed was sown.
1 litre pot £5.00
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| Rheum alexandrae SDR2924 is a wonderful species for wet places, at its best growing with Primula sikkimensis beside a lake. The tall flowering stems are covered with amazing triangular, creamy bracts. | |
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| Rheum alexandrae SDR4602 is a magnificent species with a crown of many not very large fleshy leaves. When it flowers it sends up a tall stem, clothed in cream-coloured bracts, overlapping and hiding the insignificant flowers and then the seeds. Surrounded by Primula sikkimensis it looks wonderful - and that is a combination to try in cultivation. | |
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| Rheum alexandrae SDR4757 has tall flower stems, covered in triangular creamy yellow bracts, each the size of a hand. These remain after flowering, and the seeds ripen behind them, out of sight. The leaves are fleshy, many of them arising directly from the crown. Looks great with pale yellow Primula sikkimensis. | |
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| Rheum delavayi is one of the dwarf alpine species, one of the smallest. The leaves are mat green and the stems are red - so just like the favourite ingredient of school dinners in the good old days. The flower stems are erect, sparsely branched. The flowers themselves are barely signicifant, but the seeds that follow are attractive, although hardly show-stoppers. | |
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| Rheum nobile SDR4750 is the most sought-after species, a giant from the Himalaya and western China. It grows amongst rocks, where no soil at all is visible, yet produces large, rough leaves, not unlike those of cultivated edible rhubarb. These leaves go rich rusty orange or red in autumn, so the plants are visible from a great distance. The flowering stems are up to a couple of metres high, and are covered in large, almost white bracts. The flowers are hidden behind these, and in due course so are the seeds, as the bracts remain until winter. An amazing plant, not easy to grow, but worth every effort. | |
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| Rheum SDR5004 comes from high alpine limestone screes at 4400 m, in a region where summer rainfall is not very high. It short flower stems, loosely branched, over a few roundish, greyish green leaves. |