Could you possibly post a picture of the flower, and of the plant in the ground?

(edited for typo)

This post was edited by lisanti07028 on Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 21:46

No problem! Thank you for taking the time to look at this. The second image will follow shortly.

And here is the closeup of the flower.

I am almost positive it is a Stachys, which is a family best known for Lamb's Ear, a low-growing plant with grey-green fuzzy leaves. Could you tell me where you are - just the state or region? Stachys albens, which is "endemic" in CA looks almost right. Here's the page on that one, and I'll keep looking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia page

Sorry, just saw that you're in NY.

One more question (sorry) - what color was the flower?

I haven't really seen the flower bloom much, but as I recall it white(ish). Thank you for pointing me into that direction! It looks like we're getting closer to finding a solution to the mystery!

As far as I can see, what you've got matches stachys albens, which is native to California There are over 300 types of stachys, and I can't find pictures of all of them, but there aren't too many that have white flowers, so that eliminated a lot. Do a google search and see what you think.

Stachys tend to self-seed a LOT, so you might want to cut off the flower heads (and don't compost them!), They also like to send out underground runners, and some of them have runners AND tubers, just to make things interesting. If you want to get rid of them, I think that you're going to have to pitchfork them up, and you might see stragglers for a year or so. One website said that albens gets invasive when it's growing where it's moist.

You might want to post your question in the Name That Plant forum here on GardenWeb, just to double-check; I promise that I will not be offended in the slightest.

Looks very much like what's known as 'cud weed' here in FL - try a Google Image search for that...

Fun--- after I read that it was most likely a plant in the mint family I was already afraid that getting rid of them might become an interesting problem indeed! The flower seems to be delicate enough that just trying to cut the plant (or rip it out) is enough to send the seeds flying.

Time to do some research. Thank you everyone!

I don't know this plant personally but my first thought was also a Cud Weed, ie Gnaphalium sp., which is in Asteraceae. Are the flowers papery and of an 'everlasting' texture?

The flowers are not Labiateae in form, so I doubt very much it is any species of Stachys.

I have been looking at many images of cudweed (originally mistaken for 'cut weed', which yields something completely different :), but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I'll try to use my better camera to take some more pictures later today; hopefully I can get a more focused closeup of the leaves and the flower.

What difference a real camera vs. a cell phone makes! Stachys Albens doesn't seem like it is a close enough match, and I'm not sure cudweed does the trick either.

As an aside: I ran into a guy from Scott's yesterday in THe Home Depot, and he had no idea either...

hmm, it is growing so well it is like you planted them!