Could it be a castor bean??

D'oh! I should've also said... take a look at my post titled "Good annuals for taking up space?" There's a great photo of castor beans!

That's it!!!! Thank you so much Deeje! I have property up in Wisconsin and unfortunately my "new" neighbors are not the nicest. We are going to put up a 3-4 foot wood fence between our properties but I wanted to add some foliage. These castor plants look awesome! My only question is when do you start planting the seeds?

chefdarka, I just read over in "Perennials" (I'd asked my question there too, in case the Annuals forum was quiet this time of year) that you can either direct-sow them or give them a head start indoors.

I've never grown them but in my zone 3, frost possible through most of May climate, I'm going to start them indoors maybe late March. Apparently, they can grow from 4 to 12 (!) feet tall, and I'd love 'em to be at least 6-7' for my situation where I want screening until my lilacs grow up.

Here's a photo that juicylucy posted over in that other conversation; aren't they just wonderful??

{{gwi:26111}}

These are so easy to grow in zone 5. But they will not get monster size if you wait until after the last frost.
Sooooo start them in the house and grow them under lights.
The plain green leaf with boring pods will be the tallest at 9-10 feet.
the pink pod with semi red stems and semi dark leaves will be a tad shorter (pictured above)
and my favorite 'carmencita' will be the shortest- but still 6 ft! with those dark leaves- very eye catching.

We have terrible winds and i lost at least a foot of height due to blow over- so I'm staking the babies at transplant next year.
The roots go to China- I pulled up a 4 ft root this spring after it had rotted.

The seeds are very toxic.
I started them at the same time as my tomatoes- under lights.
toodles, Karen

I sowed 'Carmencita' directly in the ground in May. Plants grew to about 4-4.5 feet. I also started some indoors before the last frost but they didn't do as well as the ones I direct sowed. I would suggest if you start them indoors to sow the seed no sooner than 4 weeks before you want them to go out...sow into something as deep as a carton of Dryer's Ice Cream to accomidate the fast/deep growing roots. Indoors to get quick germination, soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours. I had germination within 7 days.

Vera

Remember that they are extremely poisonous! All parts of the plant but especially the seeds.