Hi Brian,
The way that the CanGrow property works is that there has to be a horizontal space (imaginary line) underneath the controls which can grow so that the canvas can be "split" and pushed down. If a split on the canvas cannot occur below a control that can grow because cutting the canvas would cause another control to have to be broken, then the can grow property will not be able to work correctly. This is most likely the problem that you are running into with having two controls which can grow to different sizes next to each other horizontally, like this.
The way avoid this problem is:
1. Set the size of SubReport to be of height greater than the cumulative height of all controls on the left. You may set the CanShrink to true, to avoid empty space.
2. Give enough space to the control on the left to grow i.e with respect to our sample, give space to the Description field to grow and then place the Category Name giving adequate space.
3. In case you wish to surround your columns by shapes. You may set the height dynamically in the BeforePrint Event. However, at design time keep the shape size to be greater than the height of controls it has to keep.
Attached is an example describing the same
Hope this clarifies
Best Regards,
Tuhina