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Friend or Foe?
JansPlan
Posts: 2
Hope someone with more knowledge than we have will be able to help. This plant has grown up in our garden this year. My husband did plant a plant in the same spot ... which our Spaniel pup decided to chew up! Unfortunately he can't remember what the plant was... so when this grew up we (well he did!) thought it was the plant revived. I'm more inclined to think it is a not so little weed! As you can see from the photo it is now flowering with pink flowers and I'm concerned if it is a weed once it goes to seed we will never get rid of it. Please can you put this debate to rest. Do we leave it in the ground and let it thrive ... or do we dig it out with haste? 
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Posts
That looks like a weed - Joe Pye Weed
Eupatorium, but Joe Pye Weed is it's common name
Lovely for butterflies etc
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
A keeper, but can seed around a bit.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
An excellent plant for late summer colour too !
Thank you for all the very quick responses ... I'm afraid that is Joe Pye gone! Perhaps it was the fact that it had 'weed' in the name (which effectively meant I won the debate!)
that my husband dug it out with the speed he did. Jokes aside, it was really the fact that it can grow to 10ft high and 10ft wide (and given the speed it shot up at this year) it would never have been suitable for the area it was in. It has left a HUGE hole where the rootball was... took a bag of soil to fill it! Sad that the butterflies, other insects and birds love it as well, because we do try to make our garden a home for them as well.
Never mind - you'll be able to find something else butterfly friendly to fill the space
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...