Scottish growing tool

Rhubarb Variety Selector: Which One For Your Garden

Every recommendation below traces back to our full Rhubarb varieties comparison — this page is the fast route to one answer for your specific situation, no clicking through required.

If: The earliest possible crop, forced under cover → The AGM variety or The earliest possible crop, forced under cover → Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice or Not sure, just give me the safest all-round choice

Timperley EarlyAGM

Timperley Early is still the strongest all-round pick for Scotland: it forces reliably for a February crop and copes well grown normally outdoors too. It carries the RHS Award of Garden Merit, and was bred specifically for forcing.

If: The earliest possible crop, forced under cover → Whichever forcing variety is actually available, AGM or not

Stockbridge Arrow

Stockbridge Arrow is suitable for forcing and ready to harvest from late April as an early maincrop. It carries no AGM, but it's a genuine alternative to Timperley Early for anyone whose supplier or garden centre carries one but not the other: both share the same core value of an early, forced crop, just without Timperley Early's AGM label attached.

If: My space is tight, a raised bed or container

Fulton's Strawberry SurpriseAGM

Fulton's Strawberry Surprise is the most compact of the AGM varieties, with a maximum height and spread of only 0.5 to 1m against Timperley Early's 1.5 to 2.5m spread. For a raised bed, a large container, or any plot where a full-sized rhubarb clump genuinely won't fit, that's a real reason to pick it over the usual two picks.

If: A second harvest window later in the year, not an earlier one

Livingstone

Livingstone is the only variety here that keeps cropping into autumn instead of going dormant in midsummer. Its main cropping period runs from early to late autumn, and it can also be harvested in summer if wanted, a second cropping window later in the year rather than an earlier one. It doesn't carry AGM, and it's also the most compact of all seven varieties covered across the article and the growing guide.

Answer these as a quick wizard instead →
Rhubarb growing guide →Full Rhubarb varieties comparison →

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