This amazing plant has a lot of bad press to get over so I see it as my job to do so!
For a start it isn’t going to give you a rash, the species that people are allergic to is now not even a Rhus but appropriately called Toxicodendron.
It does however sucker strongly which will put lots of people off, although a self suckering copse would be stunning in any garden. I in fact don’t even grow it as the small tree to 4metres or so that it can be but cut it to the ground every winter in my perennial border and so treat it as a perennial. If grown this way it rarely gets taller than a metre and a half and has lightly suckered throughout my border tying the whole thing together with huge soft green feathery leaves throughout spring and summer which turn startlingly brilliant scarlet before they shed in the autumn., It is scattered throughout the border after about 7 years in the ground and the bed is about 10 metres or so long!
I have nice plants in 10″ pots at $32 if you think that what some may see as a problem is an asset in your garden, I know everyone who sees it in the autumn is gob smacked by it.
