Gunnara has no relation to dinosaurs or rhubarb. At mid-summer time my patch was ten feet tall with 4foot wide leaves and the patch 40 feet wide and growing. The leaf covering you see will compost down over the winter and the wonderful shoots will push the compost aside and emerge in three weeks in the early spring as shown. It has been in this spot for twenty years. I had it in another spot for eight years and needed an excavator to transplant the root balls to this site.
I think really anyone who grows a plant like this is marginally crazy. But it is monumental as the second view shows in late summer. In the fall Gunnera is attacked by the deer that are in rut since the stems have large spikes that remove antler velvet rather easily so that the bucks can be more fierce. By fall the Gunnera is rapidly declining for the year and will need the three feet of leaf compost for the winter.
The plant as you can see is large, coarse, spectacular, tropical and in your face. It's probably a man's plant.
I think really anyone who grows a plant like this is marginally crazy. But it is monumental as the second view shows in late summer. In the fall Gunnera is attacked by the deer that are in rut since the stems have large spikes that remove antler velvet rather easily so that the bucks can be more fierce. By fall the Gunnera is rapidly declining for the year and will need the three feet of leaf compost for the winter.
The plant as you can see is large, coarse, spectacular, tropical and in your face. It's probably a man's plant.
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