Plant Id pleaseAnd how to care for it

Hi spottedray, did you see this in flower? The habit and leaf shape suggests it might be a purple loostrife {Linaria is the botanical name}

I love helping to id plants from pictures but it wuld help if you included how tall the plant is ect as it is often difficult to judge when there is little to help scale. I dig a blog in the summer called 'why all the questions' to help explain why we often answer a question with even more questions.

If it is Linaria then it will grow to about 3ft tall and have little purple snapdragonish flowers, sometimes pink. They self seed freely and are very hard. Looking after wont be a problem, bt getting rid of the excess might be :o) I dig out the excess every year and leave 6 or so plants for there prettyness.

Thanks seaburngirl.

The plant is tallest at 4 feet but majority of stems around 3 and a half. Im told by my neighbour that its purple in flower

Thanks seaburn. If your id is correct (you obviously know too much to get it wrong) do I need to cut the plant down to base level or something like that?

Also it has has toppled over. It it doesn't need cutting back should I support it in some fashion?

If it is a vigorous expander does the last picture look like its progeny?

Many thanks.

Whatever, the top growth may be removed now. Not sure that it is Linaria though, the leaves look more like those of Aconitum.

spottedray has added the second photo and that looks like one of the saxifrages to me.

The top one if it is linaria can have the dead stes removed at soil level. I have never had to stake it as it is strong stemmed.

Well, your first pic does look like my Linaria, you can cut it right down where you'll find new grey/green growth at the base.
The second pic isn't the Linaria like Owdboggy says, it could well be Aconitum or Monkshood.......it is poisonous.

Actually the bottom leaves could be creeping buttercup too.

The second picture looks a little like a cinquefoil to me, and I think of it as being one of the bunch called rock roses (I could be deeply misled on this one) - maybe another name for creeping buttercup, Owdboggy? Whatever, I strongly suspect it is what I would regard as a weed.

Yes, could be one of the Potentillas.
Rock roses are usually Helianthemums rather than the herbaceous Potentillas which are commonly called Cinquefoil.
Fun ain't it?

Now I look more closely I'd go Potentilla too as there are clearly runners with baby plants. They make good ground cover plants.

THAT's the word my geriatric brain and I were searching for, Owd! Potentilla! Thank you. Still a weed in my book, and shouldn't be allowed to flower: I root it out by the bucketful.
The first picture I would definitely id as Linaria - another weed in my book - pretty, but weedy. Sorry.