Growing rhubarb in the south

My wife asked me to look into growing rhubarb. I've never grown it before, and from what I gathered researching the plant is it's a perennial, requires extended chill hours in the winter and prefers summer temperatures on the cooler more temperate side. I'm curious if anyone here who lives in the sweltering south has made an attempt at rhubarb, has had any success or perhaps knows of a variety that tolerates higher temperatures.

I used to know of someone in Memphis area who kept some rhubarb alive. They planted it in the flower bed underneath a window air conditioner, to use that drip, drip, drip, watering the plants. I don't have any personal experience with it.

It grows fine here in Utah. Our summers are typically HOT...many days over 100 degrees. The plants like to be shaded from the western sun.

I grew up and lived in North East Georgia all my life until 12 years ago when we moved to Alaska.  Our next door neighbor had rhubarb in her kitchen garden right outside the back door.  Had had it for many years.  Grew great there.  You should not have any problems growing it in TN.  I would probably not grow it on the south side of the house where it is in hot full sun, but maybe on the east or north side where it tends to be a little cooler.

In the deep South it tends to be short lived with Phytophthora crown rot taking them out within a few years.

I can't get it to live more than a year or two. Probably root rot. I'm going to try again n a raised bed.

There is rumored to be a variant of Victoria available from Mid-Texas that does fairly well in the hotter climates, but past about zone 8  (9 or warmer) can be difficult to keep going. I am at 6b and a raised bed and drip watering system with mulch is doing well after five years...

Rhubarb started out as a Chinese medinicial herb until  British gardeners managed to grow it bigger and turned it into a fruit so I am not sure that crown rot is the issue as we get crown rot in the UK too. In the wild they grow in damp areas next to running water and don't like to get too dry .

David

I want to thank everyone for their input! I'm gonna give it a try and see what happens.

James, how did it go?

I have one that is around 4 years old now. It has shade all afternoon. I cut the seed heads off as soon as I notice them. It hasn’t been very productive yet, but I think it is starting to adapt. It barely survived the first two summers.

I am in midwestern Missouri.

I've read that there are red varieties of rhubarb bred in Australia that handle heat and that don't go dormant in the winter.  I noticed last year that there's a variety available in the US that has genetics that came from Australia, KangaRhu .
I picked one up to see if I can keep harvesting it or not throughout my growing season....we'll see.  Hopefully it will do well in hotter regions, as that was the reason they were working with Australian genetics.

If one could get a bunch of seeds from the Australian varieties that would be my vote for finding well adapted plants...just grow out a pile and let your conditions select the best.  Good luck!

Looks like there are other offerings of Australian genetics one may be able to get:
superior genetics seed line red
Hardy Tart

This is awesome! I adore Rhubarb, and have had some in quite a few of the places I've lived - but, not here. I'll try again! Thanks, Greg!

Zone 10 in Los Angeles, rhubarb grows well here. It does have red stems, but not sure of variety as I got the divided roots.

Joy Oasis wrote:Zone 10 in Los Angeles, rhubarb grows well here. It does have red stems, but not sure of variety as I got the divided roots.

Do you do anything special for it? I am in zone 9b, and would love to grow rhubarb. But I always thought it was too hot. Though I did read you can grow it as an annual with wimpy stems.

I also grow it in 9b. Can't tell you what cultivar as it's just labeled rhubarb (here the roots are used medicinally). Have also tried from seeds and it works but takes aaaaaages.
It doesn't get super huge the way it did in New Jersey, and doesn't ever go dormant. It can have trouble in our rainy/dry cycle weather too. The plants tend to last 2 or 3 years before deciding they've had enough and succumb to some sort of rot, usually. I've tried to divide crowns and that also usually kills the whole mess; the easiest thing for my life right now is to buy a new plant every 2 or 3 years.
Also, because it's precious, every disaster happens to the rhubarb and not the surrounding plants. If the birdbath falls over or a cushion falls off the washline, it's going to land on the rhubarb, guaranteed.

This is great info! Exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve tried growing rhubarb here in 7b North Carolina in a full sun field garden. And they are not happy! I’m inspired to try again w new plants in shady areas by our creek or the damp edge of our woods! Thanks!

I would think you could dig up a crown and fool it by putting it in a refrigerator for a couple of months to keep it going.

I pretty much grew up in Texas, and Rhubarb does NOT like Texas, so I had never eaten any until I was in my 30's.  I had a coworker "yankee" transplant gardener friend that just loved rhubarb and was bound and determined to grow it in the Dallas area.  We came up with the idea of dumping the excess or spoiled ice from her ice-maker on her rhubarb patch throughout the winter.  It worked.  She had fresh rhubarb for years and years.  

Tereza Okava wrote:.
It doesn't get super huge the way it did in New Jersey, and doesn't ever go dormant. It can have trouble in our rainy/dry cycle weather too. The plants tend to last 2 or 3 years before deciding they've had enough and succumb to some sort of rot, usually. I've tried to divide crowns and that also usually kills the whole mess; the easiest thing for my life right now is to buy a new plant every 2 or 3 years.

How much shade do you give it? And where would you buy a rhubarb plant?

Rhubarb grows quickly from seed, if you found a southern seed source that might be the best way to try it.   You can start some in pots and they're the size you find at a garden center in about 3 months.

H Hardenberg wrote:
How much shade do you give it? And where would you buy a rhubarb plant?

Mine is in the space in my yard with the most sun and good drainage- past plants in shady spots have rotted in the rainy season, including one that I made a sand pit especially for, thinking it would help drainage. (It didn't). Because I'm urban with building shade, the current rhubarb spot gets full sun until about 3 or 4 PM.
I have one garden center in the region that sells plants, they're pricey but I do like having it around.

I also visited the house of an English colleague of mine also living here in Brazil who grew rhubarb in a deep pot (the kind of pot you'd have a small tree in, maybe almost a meter deep) in a city maybe 2 zones hotter than here. It was in part shade, tucked into a niche in a building, obviously she controlled water entirely, it was a glorious, beautiful plant.

Edited to add>:
Yesterday we visited a farm restaurant that had full rows of asparagus (!) and rhubarb, both of which are so very rare here. The rhubarb looked a lot like mine- doesn't get as tall and vigorous as I've seen in the US (last summer I visited an organic demonstration farm in PA where the rhubarb was almost as tall as me), and right now in the hot season it is a bit sunburned and ratty. I'm not sure if the smaller stature has to do with the cultivar we have here or with the fact that the plant never goes dormant.
(asparagus is a whole nother topic, also because of the no-dormancy thing. My last bunch all died, but the plants we saw yesterday looked really healthy with huge full fronds. No garden folks were around, unfortunately, because I wanted to ask if they just cut them off at a certain date or when they get berries or what-- it's hard to figure out what to do when they don't turn yellow or die back.)