I have the worst time telling this plant from a weed when not in flower. I'm so bad about not labeling things, and now I've got some questionable plants around that I thought may be the Heleniums I started from seed last year.

Do any of you have any pics of the plant while its not blooming? I'd love to see a close up of the leaves and stems. Of course, pics of them blooming would be lovely too!

I have Helenium Mardi Gras. It's the only one I currently have, but it's been a trooper for the last 3 years.

How pretty! That looks like a nice shorter one. The green part looks so non descript, I just know I've got weeds I'm tending out there! Is there any feature you've seen that sets it apart from other plants?

John hasw been ripping out backthorn & brought in a leaf of a shade plant which we planted eons ago. We are both drawing blanks.

Not sure Neal...I'll have to get a close up of the leaves and stems for you tomorrow.

I was just out looking and took some photos.
The one in bloom has a smother leaf . this tall one has little pointy bumps on the leaf edges.

Also the stem is not smooth , it has like flaps of flanges along it length wise.
Some of my photos came out blurry so going for more.

Thanks for doing that Cinda...Guess I'm running a little late:)

Awesome, Cinda- thanks so much! I can see it does look a little different from Bev's, hers is probably more like the one you have in bloom, the leaves do look more smooth.

Oh, that helps a lot too, the "wings" on the stems! I think that will narrow down which ones are weeds. Do those in bloom now have the winged stems too?

Yes I felt both stems,
Sorry no good pictures they are all blurry (camera issues)

Excellent! These are just the kind of details I'm looking for! Thanks soooo much!

I have trouble with these looking like weeds too I ''weeded'' out my first two years of plants then finally marked them with a stone so they have a chance
I do not know the names of the two types I have they were winter sown babies from three years ago. (piggy swap)

Glad that you could ID it. Our mystery leaf turned out to be a heuchera--leaf much larger than our other ones. Yes a lot of things get 'stone marked' here.

From a distance my gardens look pretty and full of color, but upon fairly close inspection they're obviously full of weeds. We went on vacation the last week of May, then I've been busy with work through June, so I'll have some serious inspection to discern the weeds from the Heleniums.