Rhubarb thinks it is spring

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I took this picture today. I looked at other years and every year I have picture of rhubarb like this in March.

 

[Smart Red]

Mine are behaving. Of course, they have a layer of snow and ice over them.

 

[digitS']

My rhubarb has shade on the west. I can't believe it's behaving like yours, already.

You know. The ground might not be frozen. It was covered with an insulation of snow fairly early. The soil was frozen before then but it couldn't have been very deep.

Warmer afternoons, rain - the snow is almost gone from my yard. What is saving us (and our mountain snow pack) is the rain here has mostly been snow just a little higher and it just hasn't been that warm.

Tell that plant to go back to sleep!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Mine still has a good 8" of snow to keep it sleepy.

 

[Smart Red]

Even if the rhubarb has started to grow, it will return to (at least) semi-dormancy when the temperatures get cold again. At least it will unless you have warm weather for an extended time.

I've had rhubarb start growing again in the fall, then stop with the cold, and still have a great harvest. However, in the spring of 2012, the temps reached 80 in February for a few weeks. Fruit trees budded out and flowered, spring flowers bloomed, and everything was lost for the season with the return of winter temperatures in March.

Even then, I still had rhubarb.