Quackin Grass Nursery

Gunnera manicata - Brazilian Giant Rhubarb is fascinating to all who see it, even those not predisposed to having a love for all thngs green. Leaves can grow from four to six feet, are virtually peltate and supported on strong, thick stalks. A single leaf is rounded, often cupped with deep indentations that with the broad, rounded and extended leaf ends suggest lobes. The leaf margins are further coarsely and irregularly indented to near frill. To say this is a bold perennial is an understatement. It's gigantic, prehistoric and fantastical; you're Alice through the looking glass and you've taken a pill that makes you small in relation to all about you. Flowers are curious: copious tiny reddish green flowers stud branched structures that look like a fat, spadix in summer - a pine cone hybridized with a Knifophia and bred with an extra long, rotund Cheech and Chong doobie. They can be a foot wide. They age brownish to cinnamon. Though gardeners grow it usually for the leaves its interesting flowers, oddly beautiful are the inflorescence is a comely contrasting bonus. I had been fascinated by this plant since learning of it. Considering its size I had spacial concerns as to how much room it would eat in the mix of our finite growing spaces. But having seen it in Golden Gate Park I became enamored of its giant proportions and Jurassic feel... it's a wowser for sure. That nudged me over the edge and I just had to give in and attempt it at least once. Ah, plantaholism. One medicinal use is for the treatment of STDs. Full sun to part shade planted in deep, fertile moist to extra-moist ground. Spectacular pond marginal. Tolerant of clay soils. Intolerant of winter cold and wet. Ph adaptable. Established potted Gunnera, seed grown.