Question
unkonown plant
Perennial grows by the pond in full shade, but seems to tolerate a lot of dryness. Leaves get about 16" across, light green, one large round leaf to a stalk, similar to a celery stalk. Leaves die in late fall. Flower stalks appear in mid to late winter. Flower stalks are maybe 8" tall, very thick and almost cauliflower-like but much smaller. Thick rhizomes. Slugs love it. Growing in zone 8. Note leaf edges in pix with small harmless spikes. Sorry, no flowers now
AnswerThat looks like hollyhocks, but I'm not sure without seeing the flowers. Did you maybe mean 8 feet when you said 8"? See the image search below to see if I'm right.
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&ei=K-rfSdeqE-GPmAfvzfymCQ&s...
Trey
