I do not know what this plant is. Honestly. This is not a post like this one from before. I don’t recall planting anything that was going to have leaves this big. I would have remembered it. (Note the daisies are just growing around the plant, the one with the big leaves. I know what the daisies are!)
I will have to spend the rest of the evening going through reference books trying to figure out if this is something good, or some big weed. Some of the lower leaves are almost a foot and a half long. I noticed it last year, but it never flowered, and this section of the garden was a bit overtaken by perennial sweet peas, so I didn’t really bother with it much. But now that I’ve cleaned up the sweet peas, I’ve got to figure out what this is! I hope it flowers soon.
If anyone has an idea, please comment, I could use some help on this one.
See My Garden Pictures for an update on spiderwort flowers in the garden. I do know what those are!)
Came across your blog – very nice!
Your mystery plant is common burdock, usually considered an invasive weed (although I guess it also has several herbal uses).
Here’s some information: http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/arfmi.htm. Not the best website, but gives you an idea of the plant. Here’s a better website: http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/d/dock/burdock/mondaygarden/SS166burdock.html
Burdock is a biannual, and you say you had it last year, so it should try to go to flower this year. It’s very hard to get dig up, as the taproot is quite long. But, you can cut down the flowers/burs when they appear so it can’t go to seed, then wait for it to die (as a biannual, this should be it’s last year.)
Sounds bad, so I’m going to cut it down tonight. Now that I think about it, I did try to dig it out last year, but it does have quite a taproot. After I cut it back, I’ll apply a vinegar based weed killer to what is left!
of interest burdock has burrs on it in the fall and the burrs will stick to any thing because each stem on the burr has a hook on it. the man who invented velco like on shoes got the idea from studing burrdock burrs. i played with them when i was a child , we would make big ball from them. they would get in horses and cows tails and next to impossible to get out.