As much as I adore R p. in spring it usually deteriorates in the heat. The leaves are huge and would leave a gap in your design once they become tatty and need to be removed I am sorry to say.

I don't care since it is one of the first up in spring usually still surrounded by snow. I see the screaming red emerging and know that spring is finally going to arrive.

thanks perenn.all

how warm does it get in your area?

otherwise, yea, quite an important point, the performance in/after the heat of summer

I think Aconogonon x fennicum 'Johanniswolke' or Polygonum polymorpha should work, I have grown it or used it in several spots.

Large plant but not that big dramatic foliage...

It gets as warm as your area, sometimes warmer and extremely humid. I adore P. polymorpha and it blooms all summer here usually starting in May. I was not familiar with the Aconogonon x fennicum 'Johanniswolke'. Sounds like an exciting project.

the Aconogonon is the current name for Polygonum polymorpha ;-), I feel like I am always struggeling to keep up with the re-naming...

so perhaps just 3 plants to test drive the Rheum,

looks like coppiced Paulownia it is,

higher in maintenance but results in hardy, ginormous foliage

I've not grown ornamental rhubarb - but do grow the edible stuff in the flower garden. The leaves start going dormant (i.e. turn orange and die) as soon as the heat starts. I would assume its ornamental relatives would do the same so would not use them in a very visible public garden where it gets hot. I like big-leafed plants and wish there were ones that would grow in full sun and hot conditions. Most of my big-leafed stuff is in shadier places.

Golden catalpa (stooled obvs) is one of this season's crazes (better, to my mind than the paulownias).. Rheums have been an impossible dream in windy, arid eastern england.

Hi Campanula,

yep, was on my list already,

not sure about the golden cultivar, could be too kitschy ;-)

not sure how to compare them, but my impression is that stooled/ coppiced/ pollarded (cut every spring around knee height) Paulownia produces abnormally big leaves,

or

2-3 really tall shoots if you cut off all other branches

now I only try to visualize that vision, ...

most time consuming part, as always

thanks and have a nice weekend

you know.. the topic is much better.. than what the title implied ... lol ... ken

Yep, whopping. You only need to keep 3 stems of paulownia - the leaves are at least 12+ inches across and beautifully shaped. One of my customers has one and we did just that (cut it back hard). I had a tetrapanax thing for a while so I am on board with big leaves - but they can be tricky in a freezy easterly. Yeah, I know c.aurea is a bit...overwrought, but I just love it, especially in our cool northern sunlight and against the grey stone which is prevalent here, in a lot of older buildings, it is beautiful.

.

so

another brief update,

"it`s all your fault", well,

at least partially..., thanks, GW fellow nerds :-)

we could plant in April and May of this spring, wheather was unusually cold and rainy afterwards, so that helped

I put in quite a lot of Bistorta amplexicaule and Hemerocallis (landscape types) in 3 cultivars

to give bling for the first season, I suggested to add some bedding plants:

Basil African Blue, Thitonia and Dahlias (single flowered, Duplex?)

I was tickled pink by the display put on by the Hemerocallis, bare root plants from an organic grower with a nice collection

and after the summer holidays, when I took a look after a 3 weeks break, the Helianthus really had done a proper "jump", filling in the space around the baby Paulownia

they are supposed to be H salicifolis orgyalis, which should stay slightly shorter and not flop over, in the long run they probably get overwhelmed by the maturing Paulownias or get shovel pruned at a certain point

next year the vegetation should cover all the soil and the Cogygria will get coppiced, for the first season they were just thinned out slightly and corrected.

from today

it is near a museum, the white statue is an enlargened copy of a rather tiny paper original by Picasso

and I even added 3 golden gloriously kitchy Catalpa, thanks Floral for that "flea in my ear" or bee in my bonnet ;-)