These are spectacular architectural plants, great for cool, shady, damp places. In spring they send up their stems from which leaves, often bronze at first, unfurl in a range of interesting shapes ? pinnate or palmate in the case of rodgersias, a single large round leaf in Astilboides. The flowers are tiny, massed on tall plumes, rather like those of the related astilbes, white or pink. And then, for good measure, the leaves in most cases go a rich bronze colour again in autumn.

Rodgersia podophylla is a good woodland plant providing a range of leaf colours throughout the season - bronze in spring, dark green in summer and red in autumn.