I've got this - it's a type of juncus rush, I think. Mine just appeared as well.

Oh, thanks Mel, I wonder if a bird initially dropped a seed, some of my tubs have baby ones growing too. I quite like them don't you? All this rain is pleasing them anyway.....

I do quite like them, actually. They're a bit hidden where they are, but I've left them there. I think they love damp conditions. I didn't think it was damp where I found them, so I left them because something must have pleased them! It is a mystery where some of these things come from! I've got two little oak trees growing (which will have to be moved - I'm giving them to my sister, who has a true woodland garden) and no oak trees within sight of my garden, so I'm blaming squirrels.

Thinking about it Mel, they all grow on the damp side of the garden too........

Must have been squirrels, burying them in your garden, they'll have a great future in your sisters woodland garden, for centuries to come!

Yes - it's an interesting thought, isn't it? And very nice :-)

I get something similar in my pots on my nursery. I'm not sure if the seeds come in with the potting compost or via birds.

I have these pop up everywhere, In pots like Anchorman, in the borders and plottie. The Om has them all through his peat bog. I treat them as a weed. They can get quite wide at the base if left and then they just damage surrounding plants.

My friends have this in their fields and it is nearly impossible to get rid of it.

I know it becomes very rampant in open ground - I remember it in the horses' field in Surrey - great swathes of it. It has a sort of papery centre to the blades. We used to peel it to get it out!

Thanks folks, I shall keep my eye on them, and not let them get too big for their boots...:))

Mine haven't! Probably because it isn't a particularly damp area. Oh - scrub that - it's practically underwater at present!

Lol!!

I get lots under my Iceberg Rose, its a beggar to get rid of but my dogs love it...

This sounds to be a Rush thug Lincs, I bet your dogs like to scratch their ears with it, do they....would be great if you had an itch somewhere...:)). I've been pulling out Foxgloves near here and have found quite a few Stipa tenuissima, Ponytails babies growing.....really pleased about those!

When I use to go walking in the hills these plants identified boggy areas and were useful to stand on when making my way across because they were pretty solid. Other than that I don't find them particularly useful in the garden. Sorry.

Thanks Cutsandgrazes.....ha, well if the garden floods then we'll use these as stepping stones...that isn't funny really as there'll be lots of flooded gardens right now.
I quite like them here, especially in winter when everything has died down except the evergreens, the grasses and these make quite a statement then.