Plant identity - any ideas welcome.

Hi there !

The photos below taken 06 June 2012 show a herbaceous plant which looks lovely each year - we have lived in our present home for 3 years now. I have no idea what the plant is and nor do any of our neighbours. It does not seem to be growing in any local gardens and I have not seen it for sale anywhere. There's no label next to the plant and so I hope that someone "out there" might be able to help.

Many thanks for taking the time to look !!

Could it be a Cirsium of some sort ?

Pam x

It's a cultivar of knapweed. I grow one very similar - google centurea or knapweed. I will have to delve in the RHS encyclopaedia for cultivar name.

Try centaurea steenbergii or c. John Coutts.

Centauria dealbata I think.

Hi again !!

Thanks ever so much for the very helpful replies. I've followed up the suggestions and now think it's almost certainly Centaurea dealbata 'Steenbergii'. There's even an entry on the GW plant database !! 

I've found the plant to be very well behaved unlike certain other cornflowers which spread everywhere!! This year it is less "leggy" than in previous years and despite the regular rain of recent weeks it has not flopped !!!

I have a few more plants to identify but as they have not flowered yet I cannot take proper photos.

Thanks again and happy gardening 

Hi again - being new to the forum I'm not sure whether I should start a new thread for help with more plant identification or stick with this one.

Have decided to stick with this thread and see if I get any responses.

The following photos of unidentified plant were taken today and a couple of days ago. The plant is perennial and spreads by way of underground roots sending up individual flowering shoots at random !!!  It hasn't proved to be invasive yet but I think it could be so, if I don't keep it in check !!

Neither the flowers nor leaves are aromatic. Not sure if it's clear from any of the photos but the shoots are square rather than round which I think is unusual so may help with its identity, or family, at least.

The first photo shows the plant in situ in front of the foxglove and to the left of it. The second shows leaf arrangement and flowers in the bud stage, the third a close up of a flower which puts me in mind of a snapdragon and the final photo is looking down at young emerging shoots showing leaf arrangement.

 Thanks to everyone for looking and for any helpful suggestions to explore. 

Looks like a salvia to me

Not sure, looks like a red dead-nettle possibly, are you sure there's no smell?

I'd go with dead nettle as well. Lamium is the botanical name I think. Crush a leaf - dead nettle has a rather acrid smell.

looks rather like Hedge Woundwort [Stachys Sylvatica] - have a look at that one.

Like Salino, I think it might be a stachys, they have square stems and usually spread by rhizomes - sylvatica or officinalis

Yes, may have changed my mind!

Hi everyone - thanks ever so much for the suggestions. I do have dead nettle in the garden and once the rain stops I'm off to crush some leaves !!!

I'm thinking that the plant is a type of stachys and am going to investigate further the particular ones mentioned - I have stachys lanata and stachys macrantha in the garden already and think that 2 other plants which I cannot identify from enquiries with neighbours, internet etc etc and which have square stems may also be stachys varieties - they are yet to flower so no point taking photos, not to mention the weather !! 

It's really good to have a forum like this where people are so helpful even though it might seem like stating the obvious for those who recognise the plants immediately.

I hope that at some time I can be as helpful. 

Hi again - just thought I would let people know that I am now sure the plants is a Stachys sylvatica - Hedge Woundwort.

I'm still looking into what the other plants might be now that I have Stachys types as a start. I have a list of varieties to explore and if I have no luck will post again with photos. 

Hi everyone - I'm back - let the challenge continue !! 

I have 'square eyes' from searching internet etc all very interesting but still unable to identify a couple of plants. I've also been waiting for plants and flowers to develop so that I could get more useful photos.

I'm pretty sure that the first plant is a Stachys variety with fairly distinctive crinkly serrated edged leaves and flowers which do not seem to open much. However, although there are so many varieties of Stachys none seem to match what I have !!

The second unidentified plant - the final 2 photos - has similar characteristics to the Stachys - square stem etc but as these are not exclusve to Stachys I have wondered if it's a type of Phlomis although it's not like a yellow one I have in the garden and unlike ones I have seen in gardens locally !!!

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions 

That's it for now.