These are spectacular architectural plants, great for cool, shady, damp places. In spring they send up their stems from spreading clumps, 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 the closely related 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 great architectural plant in rich moist soil in shade, with striking bronze-coloured leaves in spring, going dark green through the summer, and then turning deep red in autumn. And it has tall flower stems carrying masses of tiny white flowers, sometimes flushed pink or red.