We went off for a holiday to this ancestral house in the Laurentians. Some parts of the flower beds were completely invaded (...huh... recovered?!) by the wild flora. So I have no idea if this special plant I wish to identify is a wild one or a cultivar/exotic "garden diva", although I suspect the latter.

Anyway, still not in flower but only in flower buds, it was beautiful! About 4 ft high. Pale green stems and leaves. Leave trilobated (about size of highbush cranberry tree's) and serated (sort of irregularly), and with the most strikingly soft velvety texture, like very, very thin velvet, on both faces.

The nascent flower buds are, I believe from memory, similar in form to the castor oil plant's. Anyway, each like a 1 in. diameter clump of small, conglomerated, low pyramids (also pale green in color)...

Any hint?