Rhubarb and Clematis, or Maybe Honeysuckle

There wasn’t anything special about the back yard at 818.

But 818 is the place where I spent the bulk of my childhood, so it’s a place I often go on trips down memory lane.

Let’s see, where to start. Directions are as good as any. Our house was on a north-south street, facing west, so the back of the lot was at the east end. The driveway ran along the lot’s north side. It was just wide enough for a car, leaving a foot-wide strip of dirt next to the house. I liked the lily of the valley patch that grew there.

The garage was in back, maybe 20 feet past the house. A white picket fence ran from the northeast corner of house to the garage, with a gate by the house. A concrete slab, about 10 by 10 feet, ran between the fence and the back porch.

As a child, it felt like a spacious area. And, for the sort of neighborhood we were in, it was.

At any rate, the back porch’s outside door faced north. Turning right, I’d soon be on the grass, with the garage on my left and a rhubarb patch next to the garage.

Firecrackers and Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb is one those things we can eat, except for the parts we shouldn’t.

Like pretty much everything else, rhubarb’s history is complicated.

Adding to the chaos fascination, not all “rhubarb” are the “hybrids … of Rheum in the family Polygonaceae”:¹ plants that folks speaking today’s American English call “rhubarb”.

The leaves of our rhubarb look tasty, and have an abundance of toxins.

One of those toxins, oxalic acid, is good for cleaning metal, killing mites, and shutting down our kidneys.

Rhubarb is also part of the new “Edible Landscape” garden project in Shakopee, part of Minnesota’s Metro. I like the idea, but hope they got the heads-up about those edible plants in their garden.²

On the other hand, some folks have used rhubarb leaves as seasoning. I suppose it depends on how much someone eats, how they prepare the leaves, and individual risk tolerance where nifty tastes are involved.

My folks told me that rhubarb leaves were toxic and that I shouldn’t eat them. So I didn’t. But I did set off lady finger firecrackers on the leaves. My parents didn’t object. I’m not sure why.

This was in the late 1950s, when American culture wasn’t as remarkably and selectively risk-averse as it is now.³

Getting back to those rhubarb plants. The stems — good grief, turns out they contain emodin, which apparently can damage genetic information.⁴ I wonder if anyone’s thought of doing a study showing that water is bad for us?

Anyway, rhubarb stems may not be 100% absolutely idiot-proof safe. But they do make good eating. It’s been decades since I’ve enjoyed rhubarb crisp: something we’d have as a treat, after the rhubarb was ready.

That’s a pleasant memory.

Half-Remembered Flowers

I don’t know who was responsible for maintaining the rhubarb patch. More accurately, I don’t remember.

It’s been upwards of six decades since that was current information.

I do remember that Grandma Hovde had a small flower garden along the east side of my room.

She was living with us by that time, which puts it in the mid and late 1950s. I don’t know or remember when she moved in. As far as my memory went, she had always lived upstairs at 818.

Her flower garden included a trellis, on the wall at the south end.

When I started writing this, my memory told me hollyhocks grew there. My wife told me this was — unlikely. She’s right. Hollyhocks don’t need or use trellises.

At the time, and into my teens, I’d have known what the trellis-flowers were. But decades have come and gone, and that memory is no longer accessible.

I do remember that my grandmother was not satisfied with how her trellis-flowers grew. I thought they looked fine, but didn’t have her knowledge.

Those trellis-flowers might have been clematis. That’d make sense, given the location, although photos I’ve seen of clematis don’t quite match what I remember.⁵ But again: it’s been decades since that was current experience.

Snapdragons and Making Sense

My grandmother’s snapdragons, on the other hand, grew quite well. During one year, at least.

I remember her showing me why they’re called snapdragons.

(Very) gently squeezing and releasing the flowers make them open and close like a mouth.

Again: a pleasant memory.

I’ve been thinking: maybe the flowers on that trellis were hollyhocks. But again, photos I looked at this week don’t match what I remember. At all.⁶

Finally, here’s part of why — one reason — I think enjoying pleasant memories and flowers is okay:

“For from the greatness and the beauty of created things
their original author, by analogy, is seen.”
(Wisdom 13:5)

Remembering how I should see pleasant memories and flowers — I’ve talked about God and priorities before. Flowers and a house, too:

• “Sewer Repair, and Applying Ethical Principles” (February 7, 2026)
  • Health
• “Lily of the Valley: Tiny Flowers in Retrospect” (January 10, 2026)
  • Wildflower, Weed: Take Your Pick
• “Remembering a House I Grew Up in, and Gratitude” (November 22, 2025)
  • One House, Three Kitchens
    • The Back Yard, a Landing, and an Experience

¹ Three Rs:

• Wikipedia
  • Rheum (not a plant; the stuff that, when it dries in the corners of our eyes, some of us call “sleep”)
  • Rheum (plant)
  • Rhubarb

² Edible plant, toxic leaves:

• Wikipedia
  • Minneapolis-Saint Paul (AKA Twin Cities, Metro)
  • Oxalic acid
  • Rhubarb
    • Historical cultivation
    • Phytochemistry and potential toxicity
  • Shakopee, Minnesota (Part of the Twin Cities/Metro urban area)
• Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP)
  Minnesota Department of Health
• SHIP Healthy Communities
  Scott County, Minnesota

³ Remembering lady fingers, “…A small firecracker, about 3/4-inch long”:

• Fireworks Manufacturer: Compliance Policy (February 3, 1986)
  Directives (Archived), OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

⁴ “Attack of the Rhubarb Mutants”? 😉

• Wikipedia
  • Emodin
  • Genotoxicity
  • Rhubarb
    • Phytochemistry and potential toxicity (stems contain emodin, which “represents a genotoxic risk for humans” – thus sayeth an EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS))

⁵ Mallows and a buttercup:

• Wikipedia
  • Alcea (Hollyhocks by the bushel)
  • Clematis

⁶ Two more flowers:

• Wikipedia
  • Antirrhinum (“snapdragon” is much easier to pronounce)
  • Honeysuckle