PlantFiles: Giant Japanese Butterbur, Sweet Coltsfoot, Fuki
Petasites japonicus var. giganteus

This plant is like something that fell from space - alien, fast growing and huge.

I've never seen a plant exhibit visible growth only an hour after sticking it in the ground until now.

I hope this plant spreads all over the place, and fills in the area that nothing else will grow in.

If you haven't seen this plant before, you won't know about "the smell"...but it has one. I can't place it, but it tickles something in the back of my mind from my childhood.

Is this plant really deer resistant? I don't know, but I've seen adult deer smell it and walk right by...sadly, it's usually the baby deer that you need to watch out for.

Although I am deeply in love with this plant, I have had no luck in the many times and places I have tried to grow it here in S.C. AL. It will do well when I plant it out in March but it slowly withers and dies no matter what I do once the heat sets in here around May. Shame!

Invasive, yes! but the big leaves make a fine, dramatic backdrop for other plants. Mine are now spreading around under a bunch of autumn olive and quince trees, and since they get plenty of water, they thrive in both sun and shade, though they appear to prefer sun. Deer resistant plants are always welcome here, since we have herds of deer walking the streets, and these fit the bill.

I love the foliage, but it SPREADS! Either plant somewhere that it has room to grow or it will force it's way into anything around it.

I have recently planted some Fuki plants for a Japanese woman I am installing a garden for. She has treatments to remove the "aku" or lye from it. (Aku, spelled differently, means evil or wickedness. She claims that it cannot be eaten otherwise. It is commonly eaten in Japan after such treatment.

I planted 5 bare roots of these petasites japonicus giganteus during a heat wave in July 2004. The bed sits under a huge cedar tree. It is in total shade, except for maybe 90 minutes in the morning and an hour at the end of the afternoon. Soil here (Montreal's west island, Quebec, Canada) is mostly clay.

Depending on the winters, we are located in a zone 5 or 4-B; it's hard to pinpoint exactly­. These plants just love water. They would probably love the pond's edge but there is no shade there. Rain or shine, a 45-gallon barrel is filled with water EVERY day and it drains into the bed through a homemade gravity-driven irrigation system.

This plant is just a joy to have in the garden if, like me, you enjoy large, invasive, toxic, perennial plants. The huge leaves sit on top of a stalk that is 1 1/2 in. in diameter at the bottom and 3/4 in. diameter at the top. The stalks stand at least 3 feet tall.

The 5 bare roots I planted last year have yielded over 20 plants this spring and I was digging them out of the grass and planting them back into the bed just after the snow melted (April).

Oddly, the plant flowers before the leaves appear, just after the snow is gone. An 8-in. stalk is produced that is covered by really insignificant small white flowers. When the flowers die back, the leaves develop quickly. No weeds grow under there because the ground receives just about no light.

One day, a squirrel cut off a stem and ate quite a bit of it. I found the remains of the stalk one afternoon and a dead squirrel the next morning by my garden shed. Coincidence? I told you the plant is toxic. I have learned that the stalk contains an alcaloid that degrades the liver. There are recipes for cooking fuki on the internet but one shouldn't be courting liver failure.

I enjoy the foliage with this variegated petasites then in late winter early spring it blooms. The bloom appears before the leaves break ground here.
Draw backs are it can become invasive and requires plenty of water during the hot summer. Does well in a semi shaddy area and would most likely enjoy a boggy area.