What on Earth is this?

nepasdefatchick

I started growing my own flowers for the garden this summer. One batch of flowers were supposed to be Dahlias but what has grown is some sort of botanical abortion. Can anyone tell me what this plant is as it stubbornly refuses to flower. It's not clear from these two pictures but the plant has grown freakishly tall. So, what is it?

Degsy

Looks like a Peony.

nepasdefatchick

I've just looked at some peony images through google and have decided that they aren't peony. The leaves do look somewhat similar but not quite the same and the arrangement of the plant itself is different. I'm stumped until the thing flowers which seems to be taking forever.
Anyone else have any ideas?

jezko

The Flower Bud Reminds me of a Cornflower, Centaurea sp...


http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nzplantpics.com/pics_perennials/centaurea_montana_small_02.jpg

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fungoceva.it/erbe_ceb/image_erbe/Centaurea_scabiosa2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fungoceva.it/erbe_ceb/centaurea_scabiosa.htm&usg=__1ndehhMy6P_U0SAGMjhaEYN0v7Q=&h=567&w=732&sz=27&hl=en&start=12&zoom=1&tbnid=j1BIc8PRSFNNoM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=141&ei=xfftTaySJ9GBswbhndnYAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCentaurea%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D592%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&biw=1280&bih=592

it stubbornly refuses to flower and has grown freakishly tall. Maybe you are feeding too much Nitrogen, and growing too shaded spot (Looks healthy what ever the plant is..... there are of course tall Dahlias but I don't believe it is a Dahlia from the photo ... Where did you source your seeds? And is it Possible the a "weed" has developed

OP could you take a Photo when the Flower opens... Thanks

looksee

I agree it looks like a cornflower bud, or possibly some type of chrysanthemum (ie daisy) bud, but I can't tie up the leaves with the bud. The leaf that appears to 'join' across the stem looks familiar but I can't think what it could be. I think it is a weed, I'm pretty sure it is not a dahlia. Please take a pic when it flowers.

Nonmonotonic

Abnormally tall alternate furry leaved plant = Jerusalem Artichoke?
or fartachokes as my brother calls them.

looksee

I wouldn't describe the OP's plant as having furry leaves, they look as much like basil leaves as anything.

Nonmonotonic

looksee wrote: »

The leaf that appears to 'join' across the stem

Didn't notice this, right, back to the drawing board (Basil Artichoke maybe!).

looksee

Apparently a 'double leaf' that the stem passes through is called connate-perfoliate. (I felt the need to share that bit of info ) I found this out because I got interested in trying to figure out what kind of plant that is. Trouble is there are two plants mainly that have this, one is honeysuckle and the other is an american plant that I am not familiar with, and that's all I can get when I google it!

looksee

YAY! I HAVE FOUND IT!!!!!!

*Drum roll....*

Its a Zinnia!

*Bows* Thank you so much, too kind, thank you!

jezko

And the Flowers are very similar looking to the dahlia... Well done Looksee

Nonmonotonic

Well done looksee! I was within a tribe of it!

Ophiopogon

Well done Looksee that was wreaking my head...we had some in our garden a few years ago but couldn't for the life of me remember the name. They are nice if you have a few of them together.

looksee

Yes, it looked familiar to me too, and I have grown them the odd time but I could not remember what it was. Right, that was fun, bring on the next one!

nepasdefatchick

Oh my God, thank you! It's definitely a zinnia then. I've been scratching my head for a month trying to figure it out. The seed were in a packet marked as dahlias so I don't know how I wound up with zinnias. No matter, I'll find somewhere to plant them. Thanks again.

EDIT: I just checked the packet. They are 'Daliah-flowered Zinnias'. So I guess they'll look like dahlias in the end. The only thing is I wanted them for window boxes but these plants are way too tall.

looksee

Lol - all that searching and you had it on the packet all the time ! Interesting exercise though, hope they look good when they flower!

nepasdefatchick

I know. My mother had the packet and she insisted they were Dahlias. I didn't realise how daft she is. Two of them are starting to flower as we speak. I'll upload a pic when they're ready.

nepasdefatchick

So here's that zinnia. It's finally opened up.