My poor little plastic greenhouse didn’t survive the high winds and neither did the pots and trays of seedlings. I’m not too disheartened though as the remains of the greenhouse was found next to my car and luckily there was no damage to the paint work! I’ve scooped up the soil and battered seedlings (RIP) and decided to wait a couple of weeks and plant directly as I can’t risk growing more seeds indoors (crious cats) and the greenhouse is now modern art.
I uncovered the rhubarb that has been forced (don’t think me too cruel) and was amazed at the beautiful colours of the leaves and stems. The rhubarb plant to the rear in the photo above is the same variety – this has been left to grow normally so I’m going to do a taste test at the weekend to see if the forced rhubarb is really sweeter… or just grateful to see daylight at long last!
The Pyjama Gardener 
Forced rhubarb does appear to be sweeter. RIP your greenhouse and seedlings, I know how you feel and spent yesterday patching my polytunnel after the ravages of winter, it’s ready for action now and I’m sure you will catch me up way up here, no problem!
I just love rhubarb and will happily eat it fresh from the garden… I feel that I should go to the effort of cooking with it as it can be so beautiful! Those winds have been fierce so I hope your polytunnel holds up okay.
Sorry to hear about your greenhouse and seedlings! I’m intrigued by the idea of forcing rhubarb (I don’t think it’s really done much here in the US) and I think I may give it a try next year.
It can be done easily with an old bucket… but I like the terracotta pots that look really pretty whilst doing their job!
My fleece tunnels survived the wind, but the cats seem to think that they’re an adventure playground, so have had to take them off my seedbed because it is getting trampled to death in their games of hide and seek. Found one cat with head poking out of tunnel and the other outside ready to pounce on sibling – grr. Trampled soil and grumpy gardener! No seedlings yet, so don’t know if they are done for or just not emerged yet.
Isn’t it funny – if you were to buy cats a play tunnel they’d turn their little noses up and waste your money. Have tunnels for any other reason and it’s the Cat Olympics! I hope your seedlings poke through soon x
Sorry to hear about your seedling loss – I know exactly how you feel, as I also have a plastic growhouse. I decided early on Thursday I wasn’t taking any chances so took all my trays out and brought them into the house/barn. I’m pleased I did because later that day over went the growhouse! It’s a history of loosing so many plants in my plastic growhouses that I decided, no more! Good news for you though – it’s not too late to re-sow. Love the pictures of the spring flowers, very cheering 🙂
Thanks Sophie – I’m pleased you saved your seedlings. I can’t wait to get a proper greenhouse but it’s nowhere near the top of my wish list yet.
Shame about your seedlings – but you’re right, a later sowing will soon catch up… especially this year. I love the colour of your forced rhubarb – worth forcing just for the artistic effect!
The funny thing is that I came home tonight and the leaf colour has reverted to the darker hues already. I’m just grateful to be out in the garden again 🙂
That rhubarb looks beautiful! Yum…Jeannine
It certainly adds a splash of colour – I’m sure that it will delight the taste buds too x
Oh dear, poor greenhouse and poor seedlings. The ones sown later nearly always catch up though, and I’m only sowing this week anyway. Your rhubarb looks magical! Look forward to hearing the results of the taste test!
Thanks Cathy – you’ve made me feel better about the sorry state of my seedlings.
It seems we’re all up against it this year! You with the wind ravaging your greenhouse and seedlings and me with a dog who thinks it appropriate to bury his bone in my freshly sown raised bed! We’ll all get there eventually though. Good luck!
Ha ha – are you sure you didn’t prepare that fresh raised bed just for your dog’s bone? Sounds like a perfect place to bury something!
I’m sure that’s what he thinks too! Maybe he was hoping to grow a bone tree!
So sorry to hear about your seedlings, but still having a big giggle about unfortunate greenhouse now being “modern art”! I’m highlighting your blog and others I really enjoy in my latest post.
The poor little greenhouse was crumpled and unrecognisable… just like the seedlings. Thanks for visiting 🙂
I love rhubarb but have never grown it. I really need to try! A shame about your greenhouse! Fortunately your car was spared damage. Your blooms are beautiful and a lovely start to spring!
Rhubarb is probably the easiest plant to grow over here – does it grow in your climate okay? Spring has certainly sprung!
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Oh, no….so sorry–!
A few years ago, I had a small hoop house, and the same thing happened!
Garden hugs…we had 8 more inches of snow last night!
Gardeners are made of sturdy stuff – unlike plastic greenhouses! More snow?? Sending you warm thoughts and more seed catalogues….
Those winds are just crazy, aren’t they?! Last week I found myself saying “even rain is better than this wind”… so I had to be quiet when the rain returned! Sorry to hear about the mishap with your greenhouse. I can’t wait to hear the results of the taste test between the forced rhubarb and “regular”! Doesn’t matter, really though. It’s lovely to have life in the garden again! 🙂
The funny thing is that we’ve had major wind and cold snaps but not a lot of rain so the soil is looking dusty… I smell a drought on the horizon here!! It will soon be summer and floods again I suppose.
It certainly is great to be back outside… even to do the occasional spot of weeding 🙂
Now that your greenhouse is modern art, have you seen the greenhouses that people build out of old wooden windows?
I have seen the recycled greenhouses – I need to replace my windows at some stage so who knows? New windows for the house are a higher priority than a new greenhouse at the moment!
I bet it looked like ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with your poor greenhouse blown out to the driveway 😦 Well, click heels twice to go back to the garden…giggles. What’s that on the trellis behind your sunny daffodils there PJ? Your new header is very lovely and springy but I did miss Milo and Bella’s sweet, sweet faces, hope they are enjoying spring too xK
Hi Boomdee! Your artistic eye always sees the details. The cats are loving being outside with the sunshine on their whiskers. They come in smelling of grass and soil… and I love to see them chasing butterflies and climbing the trees.
If I could click my heels then I’d definitely be back home in a jiffy x
“Sunshine on their whiskers”……love it love it 😀
I love those thin tender stems of forced rhubarb, will definitely have to force some of mine in the future, yours looks so tempting. A cheery sight after your greenhouse blowing over.
The rhubarb looks psychedelic compared to the other rhubarb… although its quickly reverting to thee normal shades now it has daylight. Thanks for dropping by 🙂
I love rhubarb too – Im going to have to sneak back over to the old house when my brother isnt looking and dig some up to transplant at our new house (he probably wont mind – we still own that house too). 🙂
It’s as tough as old boots – I have a clump that was run over by diggers and buried under clay soil and it’s still come through. It does it good to divide it so you’ll be doing your brother a favour if he asks 😉
Looking at your beautiful forced rhubarb I was thinking again how much I would like to have a rhubarb forcer. Sure a large plastic container will do the job but those terracotta cloches are so beautiful, and you are lucky to have one. I have not been able to locate them in the United States. Will you share the results of your taste test? Meanwhile enjoy the rhubarb.
My sister-in-law bought it for me a few Christmas’s ago… it is lovely and I would like to get a couple more but they’re quite expensive. Taste test results will be coming up!
How frustrating that your mini-greenhouse was destroyed by the winds, they were terrible and there were at least 4 greenhouses and polytunnels at our allotment site that were damaged. Enjoy your rhubarb. I’ve just harvested the first crop from mine and it was delicious, it wasn’t forced though. Maybe another year.
The start of the year hasn’t been good weather wise – and to top it all I’ve found a nursery of slugs under one of the plants in the garden!
I only started forcing my rhubarb because I fell in love with the terracotta forcing pots… I’m so shallow!
Oh that is too bad about the greenhouse….love the colors of that rhubarb.
The rhubarb really is a fantastic colour when forced. We’ve had some gusty weather recently so I should have been better prepared… next year maybe!
What a shame about your greenhouse, the high winds are so annoying. I’ve never forced any of my rhubarb but will be interested to see if you do find it any sweeter.
It’s certainly taller and pinker (if that is a word!).
Wow! That rhubarb is an architectural masterpiece! 🙂
Love the colour of your rhubarb, I had not heard about forced rhubarb until I moved over here to Britain, it’s not something we do in Norway, however, in Norway, rhubarb is considered having a very short season. Basically we hope it is up till 17th May (the national day) as it part of a dessert many eat that day – I suspect there will be some disappointed people this year that won’t get their rhubarb in time because of the cold weather. So the rhubarb season lasts from mid May and till the end of June. After that the rhubarb is just thrown on the compost heap because it is considered too stringy to eat. I was very surprised when I saw it was in sale all summer here in Britain, but that might be because what’s on sale is forced and not grown outside. Anyway, I love rhubarb, wish I had space for it in my garden 🙂
It is unfortunate that it’s such a big plant…. it’s a shame you couldn’t bonsai one (although miniature rhubarb wouldn’t go very far)!! 🙂 I definitely like rhubarb young and tasty as stringy rhubarb is something that would put you off it for a long time.