Rheum palmatum is shown zones 5-7 on the Missouri Botanical Garden's website. Sounds farther south and fairly hot and humid. I'd call 10 feet impressive. Wonder if the one you saw was this version or another?

Yeah but those ratings aren't based on heat tolerance. (There is an ill-conceived AHS "heat zone" rating that crops up from time to time) I was looking for somebody who had actually tried to grow one. But anyhow, I just placed the order from Far Reaches and passed on both Rheums. The brain only has such much room in the "plants to fret about" file!

I tried the r. Palmatum in south Ohio. Started from seed.... Thry took off... Potted to quart pots.... Gave them out to several different gardener friends and every single one just melted once summer hit while in the ground..... Even for the ones that got partial shade and no western sun. I would like to try again if someone can get them through the hot humid summer.

Can you grow regular, edible rhubarb, Rheum x cultorum, there? I know they can in NC and I can't imagine the growing conditions for the ornamental forms would be that different. R. palmatum after all is one of the parents (many generations ago) of our edible rhubarb.

David, Far Reaches is only about a 30 minute drive from me. I have to restrain myself from visiting too often - I tend to get a little carried away. LOL!

"Gave them out to several different gardener friends and every single one just melted once summer hit while in the ground....."

Thanks, that's what I was a afraid of.

Gardengal, yes, even after many years of being "punished" for being a foolhardy experimental gardener and having a well-honed sense of what isn't likely to survive...it takes incredible restraint to look at their catalog! I could easily have spent $500 there but managed to limit it to a little over $100. I've actually developed a little game I play with myself: I'm going to remove 3 things from my cart after my first round of shopping, no matter what, because my voice of reason will say they are long shots, sometimes outlandishly so! As I stated earlier, I realize at a certain point if you have too many plants to worry too much about, gardening starts to really become a drag.

I give them mega-kudos though, along with Annie's Annuals, for somehow bringing in plants that irritatingly reached the level of mega-popularity - for years sometimes - in the UK, without ever getting imported here. For example, Senecio pulcher, which I still haven't tried but probably will one day. I presume it's easy to propagate so should be around for a while. Impatiens tinctoria was in the category for at least a decade - I feel I read about it on UK websites in the late or even mid 1990s, and it wasn't sold by Annie's until maybe 2010? I bought one onsite in 2011. Did not appear to like hot summers and languished for me, then died in a fairly mild winter as would be expected for a plant that hadn't built up enough root reserves. But at least I had the chance to try it!

Not every plant from an area with cool summers must have them - just most of them! For example the high elevation Hedychium densiflorum offered by Far Reaches did amazingly well for me...better than hybrid hedychiums that are popular in the South. So you have to go through the motions of trying them...one does develop a certain intuition over the years, e.g., Chilean plants are VERY difficult to please here, hence not trying Ourisia.

As for edible rhubarbs, maybe they've been selected to resist hot summers? In any case, in pictures at least, they seldom look remotely as appealing as the proper border Rheums.

Oooh yes, senecio pulcher - lovely. For years, I always associated senecios with some horrid yellow groundsel-like things (brachyglottis?) until I discovered both s.pulcher and the cute s.polyodon - both are easy from seed and should do well for you. Could never manage the moisture requirements for a lot of these water-lovers - rheums, rodgersias, astilbe, ligularias...but I have drainage ditches which are begging for giant gunneras...if only I could exterminate some of the phragmites....

I always enjoy checking out Annie's Annuals.

I am in a similar climate zone as peren.all. I planted one in 2010 and is still around last year even though it was planted in a very bad dry and shady location under a huge crabapple tree, and shamefully neglected from the beginning. So it is not as juicy and healthy looking as peren.all's. I have not taken any pic with it as a subject. So the couple of pic shown here are just cropped from larger pics with it in the corner.

2011 May:

2014 May:

That is a stunning specimen peren.all and so clever in preparing its planting location.

garcanad those are wonderful pictures.

The last picture seems to show a wonderful specimen of an Acer shirasawanum "Aureum"? Beautiful.

Thanks rouge21. That is the spring colour of Acer shirasawanum 'Jordan'. Its 'spring green' is not quite as unique as 'Aureum'. I need to rescue my Rheum by following peren.all's approach before it quits on me. I am amazed that she can keep it so fresh looking in September.

I have a small specimen of A.S. "Aureum". Your "Jordan" is wonderful.

Thank you rouge! Despite having good moisture retentive soil I did feel this beauty deserved the extra little bit of prep. It is growing in nearly full sun so the very few minutes it took was well worth it. I gave the same treatment to Osmunda regalis. Do you think you might use this technique for plants you thought your soil was too dry for? I vividly recall your Ligularia being stunning though!

garcanad - What a gorgeous garden you have! Your Rheum looks right at home in the setting and your combinations are thoughtful and extremely complimentary. Truly a tapestry of color and foliage. Very impressive indeed!

peren.all, thanks. I'm impressed and might one day try one from a cheaper source than Far Reaches, but I would still stay it's a lot hotter here on a consistent basis than the Toronto area. Enough to make a difference.

Rheum palmatum 'Tanguticum'

rouge21, A.s. 'Aureum' is a 'must have'; so unique and refreshing in spring. I had 'Tanguticum' a few years ago but it quit. I don't remember the leaf colour that pretty perhaps only when it first came out in early spring.

peren.all. Thanks for the encouraging comment. My Rheum would start to decline after flowering each season, probably because I neglected to deadhead and the overly dry summer condition. I will try your method to keep the leaves stay fresh longer, and move it into more sun hoping to get that bright red in your pic.