Sambucus Racemosa "Plumosa Aurea". Planted in an area with direct sun for part of the day it retains its bright chartruese foilage most of the summer. In spring it has small white flowers that are attractive as well. My volunteer poppies seem to like it too! I've read it can be grown as a bush or pruned into a small tree.
Sandy
My niece and nephew just bought a house together and there is a beautiful specimen of sambucus growing against the sunny side of the house! It's huge, must have been planted quite a while ago. Such gorgeous foliage -- I really think this is one of the handsomest foliage plants around. That's a lovely idea, planting it with red poppies!
If you like Oriental poppies, have you ever tried the annual Papaver Commutatum 'Lady Bird'? It gets only about 1x1', but puts up multiple blooms (up to 3 dozen!) over a 6 week period. My picture isn't very good -- it was very windy that day and it blurred a little, but it's the cutest plant, kids love it because it reminds them of ladybugs. I liked it so much I bought another seedling (there's a local woman who runs a company called Annie's Annuals and she promotes unusual annuals and perennials) for the summer.
