Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

Cheers!
John (and wife)

On 18/10/19 17:14, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

Cheers!
John (and wife)

Plant A is not a teasel. As you point out, there are no prickles on the
stem. Also, the lateral veins on the leaves are opposite; with a teasel
they are alternate.

Plant B could well be a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae). To me
it seems to be something like an Echinacea, but I could well be wrong.

SRH will be along shortly with the right ID!

--

Jeff

On 2019-10-18, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.


Plant A certainly looks as if it could be Evening Primrose

On 18/10/2019 18:30, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 18/10/19 17:14, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden?Â* I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside.Â* Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year).Â*Â*Â* It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

Cheers!
John (and wife)

Plant A is not a teasel. As you point out, there are no prickles on the
stem. Also, the lateral veins on the leaves are opposite; with a teasel
they are alternate.

Plant B could well be a member of the daisy family (Asteraceae). To me
it seems to be something like an Echinacea, but I could well be wrong.

SRH will be along shortly with the right ID!


Not this time. (Surely there's still someone better on garden plants
than me here?)

Plant A is not an evening primrose - plant A has opposite foliage, and
evening primroses have alternate foliage. (More generally it didn't jump
out to me as an evening primrose - wrong type of hairiness and so on -
but phyllotaxis is a nice qualitative character to confirm that.)

With the sessile (amplexicaule? auriculate?) opposite leaves teasel
looks closer, but as noted there are no prickles, and the shape of the
plant is wrong - the branches are far too spreading.

I wondered about a Buddleja sapling, but Buddleja leaves taper to the base.

The foliage looks quite distinctive - it may that it will be obvious in
hindsight when someone puts a name to it.

Plant B, with its narrow leaflets, reminds me of Bidens, but it's much
too big for Bidens tripartita. Possibly Bidens frondrosa could get that
big, but I'd be looking for a tall horticultural Bidens (as opposed to
the bedding plants). However the plant looks likely to be family
Asteraceae, subfamily Asteroideae, supertribe Helianthodae, but that
covers a lot of ground.

OP here ...

Stewart, and Jeff, and Jim wrote

[various things -- much appreciated, so far, folks!]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

I would add that you can't really appreciate the fleshiness of the stem
of Plant A (which had me leaning towards evening primrose), and I would
point out the bronze stems of Plant B which, again, may not be
especially obvious in those photos.

Both plants are very proliferous in their foliage, as well as height.

I didn't actually realise, before, but you can enlarge the photos
(didn't notice the magnifying glass, top right when you've clicked on a
photo).

Finally: hmm - we _do_ feed the birds a lot: rogue bird seeds?

John

On 18/10/2019 22:07, Another John wrote:
OP here ...

Stewart, and Jeff, and Jim wrote

[various things -- much appreciated, so far, folks!]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

I would add that you can't really appreciate the fleshiness of the stem
of Plant A (which had me leaning towards evening primrose), and I would
point out the bronze stems of Plant B which, again, may not be
especially obvious in those photos.

Both plants are very proliferous in their foliage, as well as height.

I didn't actually realise, before, but you can enlarge the photos
(didn't notice the magnifying glass, top right when you've clicked on a
photo).

Finally: hmm - we _do_ feed the birds a lot: rogue bird seeds?

John

If the second plant is a member of the dahlia family, some species then
it could be that it wouldnt flower till Nov, but there should be signs
of flower buds forming by now.

On 18 Oct 2019 17:14, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

I think the first one is Great Willowherb, Epilobium hirsutum

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

On 18/10/2019 22:07, Another John wrote:
OP here ...

Stewart, and Jeff, and Jim wrote

[various things -- much appreciated, so far, folks!]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

I would add that you can't really appreciate the fleshiness of the stem
of Plant A (which had me leaning towards evening primrose), and I would
point out the bronze stems of Plant B which, again, may not be
especially obvious in those photos.

Both plants are very proliferous in their foliage, as well as height.

I didn't actually realise, before, but you can enlarge the photos
(didn't notice the magnifying glass, top right when you've clicked on a
photo).

Finally: hmm - we _do_ feed the birds a lot: rogue bird seeds?

That's a useful hint. Plant A looks too hairy for Guizotia abyssinica,
but there's a rare relative by the name of Guizotia scabra. Is the plant
sticky?


John

On 18/10/2019 22:44, Bob Hobden wrote:
On 18 Oct 2019 17:14, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

I think the first one is Great Willowherb, Epilobium hirsutum


I think I would have recognised Great Willowherb, but on first glance it
wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to say why it wasn't - take a
closer look at the leaf venation patterns.

--
SRH

On 18/10/19 23:59, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Finally: hmm - we _do_ feed the birds a lot: rogue bird seeds?

That's a useful hint. Plant A looks too hairy for Guizotia abyssinica,
but there's a rare relative by the name of Guizotia scabra. Is the plant
sticky?

Now you can see why I said you'd soon be along to ID it! :-)

Some years ago I used some spare Niger/Nyjer seed as a quick-growing
plant for composting. I must say that "quick-growing" doesn't do it
justice! Even growing on top of a weed-proof membrane under a 5 cm
"mulch" of 2 - 3 cm pebbles it got to almost 2 metres in a couple of
months. The strange thing is that I'd been feeding Niger to the birds
for several years, but don't remember ever seeing it grow before. Had
that earlier seed been treated (gamma radiated, perhaps) to sterilise it?

--

Jeff

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

That's a useful hint. Plant A looks too hairy for Guizotia abyssinica,
but there's a rare relative by the name of Guizotia scabra. Is the plant
sticky?

I didn't look carefully, but the first plant looked a bit like
Nicotinia alata, though that would have flowered. And that's
sticky and hairy!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 19/10/2019 09:36, Nick Maclaren wrote:
I didn't look carefully, but the first plant looked a bit like
Nicotinia alata, though that would have flowered. And that's
sticky and hairy!

Wrong leaf venation, I think.

--
SRH

On 19 Oct 2019 00:05, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
On 18/10/2019 22:44, Bob Hobden wrote:
On 18 Oct 2019 17:14, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

I think the first one is Great Willowherb, Epilobium hirsutum


I think I would have recognised Great Willowherb, but on first glance it
wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to say why it wasn't - take a
closer look at the leaf venation patterns.

Yes there is a difference, however that plant is growing in a
cultivated situation, probably high nitrogen as it hasn't flowered yet,
so that may account for the difference.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 5:14:09 PM UTC+1, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

Cheers!
John (and wife)

Have they just "Arrived" or did you deliberately plant them? Plant A reminds me of the tall Calceolaria here although they seem hairier than your mystery plant

In article ,
wrote:

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 5:14:09 PM UTC+1, Another John wrote:
Hello folks: can anyone identify two plants that are currently
prospering in our garden? I hope you can see them at

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Ebgj4oWNHEwXkdi9

Plant A is as you can see about as tall as my wife, who is 5'4". The
leaf is alongside. Personally I think it's an evening primrose that's
too late for its season. OTOH, the leaves are also reminiscent of a
teazel, but without a prickle in sight.

Plant B: again, as tall as my wife. She thinks it's a dahlia, gone mad
because it's missed its season (or perhaps because of the excessive
drinking it has been forced to do this year). It's not in "the dahlia
bed", because we don't have a dahlia bed: my wife likes to "just bung
'em in where she finds a space", hence she wouldn't be surprised if it
is a dahlia.

Neither plant has the faintest signs of buds let alone flowers.

Cheers!
John (and wife)

Have they just "Arrived" or did you deliberately plant them? Plant A reminds
me of the tall Calceolaria here although they seem hairier than your mystery
plant

Hi Charlie,
They "just arrived", and we didn't notice them until September, when
they started edging above everything around them.

Having looked at various calceolaria at your suggestion: no, not one of
them. Great Rosebay Willow Herb seems to be the closest so far,
suggested by Bob, but there's no sign whatever of flowers.

I'd lover to know what Plant B is! I've never seen anything like it:
foliage very dahlia-like, but so tall, and it's as wide as it's tall.

Cheers
John