Update on mystery plant!

Hi there

I don't know what this is called but I have some. I think it is a weed but it does flower and goes a lovely red colour in Autumn. I notice you have bindweed coming behind it with those heart shaped leaves. get rid of that before it chokes your plants, it's a nightmare once it gets hold!

Thank you for the response. It looks like a thug so I am a bit worried! I wonder if you mean Golden Rod?

The plant behind is not bindweed, it is Lesser Celandine which is another problem - it is all over the garden!

Wow thanks that really looks like bindweed, maybe I've got Celandine too! I need to check now! These plants do self seed but don't seem to be too much of a hassle. I've just pulled some up today and the roots are not extensive. I wish I could say the same for the docs and dandelions I've got :-)

Fortunately, the Lesser Celandine is an early Spring plant which has beautiful yellow flowers and then disappears in the summer. However, twice as much comes up the following year! It chokes everything in it's path for a few weeks but it doesn't seem to cause any real harm.

Just read your profile, we seem to have all sorts of wildlife here including foxes every night (makes the dogs bark!) and I saw a Badger nearby . We are right on the edge of woodland so we have fantastic birdlife as well.

Thanks again.

It looks like one of the willow herbs. It is a british native with magenta flowers and fluffy seed heads. British native can also mean weed! This looks like it is the 'fireweed' found commonly along railway lines and often on verges of motorways.

The celandine has small brown tubers that make it very prolific.

It looks like golden rod...in which case be prepared to pull the roots out...it is a pretty plant...check out solidago.could be lysimachia but the leaves look very like goldenrod the wild variety is very prolific...spreads quickly but if it's in the lawn you can snap it off with the lawn mower..grows to about 5 ft tall, .has pretty yellow flower heads in August and Sept. quickly goes brown and ugly though...I'd pull it out if I were you.
bind weed has a more arrow shaped leaf than what I see here... if it produces flowers on a stringy vine that look like morning glory it's bindweed...and the roots are almost impossible to eradicate...they go very deep into the soil...I hope it's celandine....good luck and happy gardening.

I was thinking 'Fireweed' too. Also known as Rose Bay Willow Herb.

I go for Rose bay Willow Herb with Celandine behind it. Both are pretty but invasive weeds.

Bulbaholic's right. If you decide to let the willowherb stay, pull it up and get rid of it before it sets seed, it's worse than dandelion. It's likely there's more nearby, so you may get more seedlings even if you weed out what's there now. But it's really pretty, and determined!

Everybody wants to get rid of celandine! sob,sob!

Aw bless you Celandine they don't mean you just the plant!!!

i have a bronze leaved and a crinkled leaved form that i love. i also have the common one in the base of the hedges. i only dig it out of the main beds.

I'm going to take a photo of my plant to see if it is the same willowherb. I've got a few growing but if Iike it I'll leave it; the docs are definitely the enemy at the moment!
How amazing that you have a badger nearby. I've seen holes in nearby fields but nowhere near the house. I'd love to see a wild badger, but unfortunately only ever seen dead ones on the roadside, so sad.