Have your rhubarb plants sent up flower stalks? Find out what you need to know about what to do with rhubarb flowers to protect your rhubarb harvest and enjoy a bonus crop of edible rhubarb flowers.
FLOWERING RHUBARB?
If you’ve just found flowers on your rhubarb plant, consider yourself lucky! You’ve discovered a bonus garden crop.
If you’ve spent any time reading around this site, you know we’re generally pretty fascinated by all the things most people don’t realize are edible. Whether it’s tasty wild plants like wood nettle, dandelions, or wild violets, or often overlooked broccoli leaves, we’re always interested in finding new things to eat in our tiny edible yard.
While we’ve been enjoying our bountiful rhubarb harvest in numerous rhubarb recipes over the years, we haven’t done much with the funky-looking rhubarb flowers that show up every year. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re among the many edible flowers you can enjoy this season.
Are you also a rhubarb fan? If so, you’ve come to the right place! From classic rhubarb crisp to unbelievably delicious homemade rhubarb fruit leather, we do a lot with rhubarb around here.
If you’re newer to growing rhubarb, here’s more info on how to grow rhubarb as well as some of the top rhubarb companion plants to consider.
We’ve even researched what to do with rhubarb leaves! (Not edible by the way, though there are some creative ways to use them.)
Understanding why rhubarb plants flower and what to do about it is key to maintaining their health and maximizing your harvest.
WHY IS MY RHUBARB FLOWERING?
Maybe you’ve noticed that your rhubarb plant sends up a couple of curious-looking flower stalks each season and wondered whether you’re supposed to do anything about them. Not everyone even realizes that rhubarb plants make flowers.
Like other plants, when your rhubarb plants flower it’s because they’re trying to reproduce by making seeds. This diverts energy from what you want it to be doing, which is making lots of tasty stalks for you to harvest. Letting your plant set seed can therefore compromise the quality and quantity of the rhubarb stalks you’ve been waiting for.
Larry Hodgson, aka The Laidback Gardener, points out that letting the plant flower but catching it before it sets seed can let you enjoy the beautiful flowers and still have plentiful rhubarb stalks. He maintains that even if it does set seed, the loss of rhubarb the following years isn’t terribly significant.
Parkrose Permaculture notes that the flowers are helpful for attracting pollinators.
So don’t beat yourself up about a flowering rhubarb plant and enjoy the show.
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WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR RHUBARB PLANT FLOWERS
To preserve the plant’s energy for stalk-making, when you spot your rhubarb’s flower stalks coming up, snip them away with a pair of sharp scissors or pruners (I love these).
The stalks are hollow and should be pretty easy to cut.
By removing the flowers promptly, you redirect the plant’s energy back towards foliage growth and stalk production.
Most gardeners toss the flowerheads in the compost, but since they’re edible you can also experiment with using them in the kitchen.
CAN YOU EAT RHUBARB AFTER IT FLOWERS?
Yes, it’s fine to eat the rhubarb stalks after the plant flowers, though if you left the flower and it set seed, you may find the stalks have become rather tough. You might be able to peel a tougher stalk and render it palatable if you cook it thoroughly, but tough stalks can stay pretty stringy, even when cooked.
If nothing else, you can use tougher rhubarb stalks to make tasty rhubarb juice. It’s SO refreshing as a spritzer with seltzer over ice, a perfect summer mocktail!
You can also try making a cooling rhubarb slush.
USES FOR EDIBLE RHUBARB FLOWERS
WHAT DO RHUBARB FLOWER TASTE LIKE?
As someone who’s tried a fair number of unusual ingredients picked from my garden, I would say that rhubarb flowers shouldn’t be at the top of anyone’s list of edible flowers to try.
They taste a little like rhubarb, but the flavor is very subtle. The ones I’ve tried were not tremendously floral, the way elderflowers, honeysuckle, roses, or lilacs are.
In my experiments, they didn’t have enough flavor to make a good tea or syrup. I can’t imagine someone enjoying an infusion of rhubarb flowers as they would something really tasty like elderflower tea, for example.
However, Forager Chef likes using the unopened buds marinated or cooked and served with fish. I tried sauteeing some in olive oil. The results were OK, but reminded me of eating a mouthful of just the tips of broccoli. The texture made by the little round balls was very similar to that at the end of broccoli florets. I think mixed in with other veggies they might be ok, but on their own I can’t recommend them as worth the effort to prepare.
I also marinated some chopped flowerheads in herbs and olive oil, and then I used them sparingly in a wild rice salad I like to make with foraged ingredients. This one had some spruce tips, wild violets, and chives from the garden along with the marinated rhubarb flowers.
Mixed in with everything else, they worked as a conveyor of flavorful herbs, and were a decent addition. But I wouldn’t say they had a ton of flavor on their own.
I’ve read they’re considered a delicacy in China, but I haven’t found a source to verify.
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WHAT TO DO WITH RHUBARB FLOWERS
Have a big harvest of flowers from your rhubarb patch? Here are some ways to try using them.
♦ The simplest way to enjoy rhubarb flower is as an edible garnish on a fruit salad or green salad. Rhubarb flowers show up at about the same time as violets, so have some fun mixing up your floral salad toppings.
♦ Another easy way to prepare them is to steam or pan fry them as a vegetable, where their mild flavor will help them serve as a vehicle for whatever sauce you prefer. Hilda at Along the Grapevine has also added them to roasted vegetables and pancake batter.
♦ I couldn’t find many recipes using rhubarb flowers, but you might try this Carrot Ginger Rhubarb Flower soup from Just Another Day on the Farm. They’ll add a little acidity to your soup, and pureeing should help with any texture issues.
♦ If you don’t want to eat them, rhubarb flowers make beautiful additions to cut flower arrangements!
Have you ever eaten flowers from rhubarb? Please leave a comment and share how you like to prepare them!
Save this info on how to use rhubarb flowers for later!
Additional photo credit: Flowering rhubarb photo in pin by bibi57
Susannah is a health and environmental writer focusing on gardening, foraging, medicinal plants, and sustainability. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and was a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.
Hi, I'm Susannah, a garden geek, energy nerd, and fan of healthy food and natural remedies. Need some simple, practical solutions for living healthier and greener? You've come to the right place! More about me and my green projects