Gunnera at Bayfield Hall

Last year we finally planted a Gunnera manicata plant in the back garden.

I’ve admired this plant for many years though when I was about four or five years old I found it rather terrifying when I first encountered it at Sheffield Park Gardens. We even have a lino print of Gunnera by H J Jackson on our dining room wall.

Gunnera manicata is often called ‘giant rhubarb’, though it’s in a separate family, Gunneraceae, and no relative of rhubarb, which is a member of the dock family, Polygonaceae. It comes from the Serra do Mar mountains of southeastern Brazil. The plant thrives by water, often a large lake in a big garden. Its leaves are massive and can reach 11 feet in favourable circumstances. There are some lovely specimens in the grounds of Bayfield Hall in North Norfolk, which I photographed in spring a couple of years ago.

Our baby Gunnera

In June 2011 we visited a garden just off Unthank Road in Norwich, open as part of an event called ‘Golden Gardens’, which raised money for Age UK Norfolk. In a garden no bigger than our own was a healthy Gunnera, not the biggest we’ve seen but a stately specimen nonetheless. There was no pond but it was in a shady spot in rich soil. So about a month later I bought a specimen of Gunnera manicata from a local garden centre and it is now growing at the top of the garden in shade.

Gunnera needs protection from frost so it is normal practice to cut off the leaves in autumn and invert them over the crowns for protection. Then when spring comes the new leaves burst their way through the old ones as this magnificent plant comes back to life.

Gunnera – sleeping…