Rheum palmatum 'Atrosanguineum' A Love/Hate Relationship

Although our relationship is on the rocks, it wasn't always so.

It all started  in 1999 when Shocking Beauty by Thomas Hobbs hit the bookshelves.  While I had admired several ornamental rhubarbs growing at Heronswood, this was the first image of Rheum palmatum 'atrosanguineum' at this colorful stage of development that I'd ever seen.   The beauty of this image effected many people as in the years following the publication, specialty nurseries were well stocked with Rheum palmatums.

I learned that  Rheum palmatum 'atrosanguineum' is quite variable.  Some emerge green and remain that way throughought the growing season, others emerge this beautiful wine color and retain this color on the undersides of their leaves for the remainder of the summer.  I gave up on the plant after growing several that were all green.  Nice plant and all but if I wanted to grow rhubarb, I'd plant one that would make a nice rhubarb crisp or strawberry/rhubarb pie.  

Then one day four or so years ago, at Bainbridge Gardens, I saw a bevy of these plants and one stood out from the crowd.  The undersides of her leaves was a beautiful wine red and beconed me seductively from across the nursery.  She was soon riding in my car, her sweet foliage making it difficult for me to pay attention to the road.  Love.   She stayed in her pot for a few weeks while I restructured a bed just for her to take center stage.  Because these like moisture and are long-lived plants, I dug down a few feet and liberally amended the soil with manure and peat moss.  She seemed happy!   Now, every spring, my heart returns to that warm summer day when we first met when she returns for the season.

Does this look more like an alien brain or like Marge Simpson dyed her hair red?

 

Is this cool or what?

 

 Beauty, shocking or not, can be a fleeting thing.

So, here's what has happened.  The once singular rosette of leaves has become a big woody root with lots of little side shoots.  It probably wants to be dug and separated.  This is what I get for amending the soil so well and adding lots of biosolid fertilizer every year.

 That in itself wouldn't be so bad.  (Have you seen how big these roots get?)  I'll have to go out and slice it apart but am not sure what time of year to do that.  Do you know?  But still, what's not to love about this gorgeous plant, you may be asking yourself.

 

Well friends, it seems that slugs enjoy these leaves as much as I.

 Sluggo helps but  by the middle of summer, these leaves will have become huge and any small hole eaten in a young leaf is amplified.

 

 So what, none of us is perfect, right?  I could overlook this but then there's the other thing.  I mentioned that the leaves get huge, right?  I let the plant bloom and set seed because I find those phases of the plant's development to be quite lovely.  However, after setting seed, the plant, which will have spread about 4-5 feet in all directions, blocking light so that nothing else can grow around it, slowly begins to die back.  The slow death is not particularly pretty and the resulting huge naked spot of soil in my small urban garden looks really horrible in the height of summer when everything around it is so lush and full. Hate!

We're not quite at the point of separation or divorce, but we do need some serious counseling!  Maybe you can help.

 

 

Do you know what I'm doing wrong? Should I cut the flower stalks as soon as they appear? I don't think that water is an issue as the soil has been so well amended but if that's a problem, I can be more liberal with the hose.

Thanks for any advice you can offer to help save this once beautiful relationship.  And don't start with me, it's not just that I admire her youthful beauty but want to toss her aside the moment she gets a little droopy!  The huge blank spot she's left the last couple of summers when she decides that she is sick of me is unbearable. I'd hate to see this end up on the compost heap of dreams.