Scaling leaves along a rope

[tyFlow]

I would suggest first setting up your leaves the way you want their final scale to look...you can use a Scale operator with proximity scale enabled, then place an object at the top of your rope and set the proximity thresholds such that leaves are scaled down the further they get away from it, to the desired size.

Then use a Custom Properties operator to save that desired scale to a custom vector channel. Then scale your leaves to 0. Then use another Custom Properties operator to scale them back up to the saved scale over time (timing = continuous, interpolation < 1).