Can somebody please ID this blasted plant for me?!

[TheNoodlesIncident]

I'm at my wits' end. I've searched all the plant books I have and can't put a positive ID on it (and I don't know any any other way of finding out, apart from here).

It's a total swine anyway as it spreads underground but I need to know what it is so I can find out whether I can cut it back without any hefty repercussions. I wouldn't mind if its decease if it was mine, but it's my neighbour's and I'm not sure how fond of it she is. So at the moment I am concerned about its best interests (but would get rid if I could!)

It flowers in the height of summer so surely any pruning done now won't affect future flowering and will give it a new lease of life, as it is very straggly with lots of bits of dead growth.

I was thinking Spirea of some sort but cannot find any that looks just like this, so probably way off the mark...

[ThePittts]

Is it a lilac ?

[sglod1on]

Looks like a Rose Spirea, we’ve got one but has never spread like that one.

[candycane222]

Ugly bugger isn't it? . No idea what it it, but looks to be flowering on new growth though, so I daresay it will come back fighting if you chop it back now.

[TheNoodlesIncident]

Oh, thank you all!

Bang on the money. RHS says "S. douglasii is a vigorous suckering shrub". You don't say... I would have it out if neighbour agrees as it suckers right under the fence into my garden and is a total pain in the secateurs. And yes candycane222, definitely an ugly bugger. Unfortunately everything in neighbour's garden is a pain/an invasive thug/downright dangerous (looking at you spiky yucca) and the weeds are all in the line of brambles, nettles, ash seedlings, bindweed...

Right, I shall charge the hedge trimmer battery and have at it

[minniemoll]

You can chop spirea right down to the ground and it'll grow up again quite happily - it's a thug! I've had to dig out beds completely in the past to get rid of it, and it still comes back 😢

[TheNoodlesIncident]

minniemoll I can well believe it. I don't know about types like Spiraea japonica, I always had the impression they were well behaved, but this one is definitely of a mind to take over and it will not give up easily I'm sure. I'll cut it back this time and maybe look at replacing it next year with something less thuggish. I have brushwood killer for stubborn stuff, just in case

[MrsBertBibby]

Good heavens, who would pick that?!

I have a couple of spiraeas, one pink and white, the other a fabulous magenta. They are extremely well behaved. No idea what kind they are as I inherited them with this garden, but they are great. Unlike that horror.

Kill it with fire.

[BooseysMom]

09:22TheNoodlesIncident..oh this did make me laugh! Thank you Noodles

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Ugly bugger isn't it? Unlike that horror. Genuinely puzzled by these comments. OK, it's a bit of a boring pink, and it's outgrowing its space, but what is it about it that is generating that strength of reaction? What am I not seeing?

[midlifecrash]

Is it a bottle brush plant? (sanguisorba obtusa)

[NonUrinatInVentum]

Ugly?!

[ppeatfruit]

It looks great to me, I thought it was a bouganvillea at first (it might be a relation.) You'll get lots of wildlife from your neighbours' garden. There are too many neat and tidy and pesticided gardens we need some more wildernesses!!!!! Not less.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

No, not related to Bougainvillea, the "petals" of bougainvillea are in fact bracts, which is why they're so long lasting. The flowers are tiny, and have their petals fused into a single tube. They're in the Nyctaginaceae, same as the "four o'clock flower" Mirabilis jalapa.

Spirea has clusters of tiny simple 5 petalled flowers with lots of stamens, and is in the rose family (which includes plums, apricots, apples, rowan, hawthorn as well as meadowsweet which has similar fluffy clusters of flowers).

[LaurieFairyCake]

I think it's lovely

[HeronLanyon]

I too like it - love greenery and for sure there’s plenty of it ! Needs good chop back regularly I’d think.

[Myimaginaryfamiliarhasfleas]

I've got one of those OP. I've been trying to kill it for nearly thirty years. It's as persistent as bramble.

Why is it the ugly ones are so easy to grow?

[ppeatfruit]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some climbing roses look similar, you wouldn't want to kill those.

Think about the environment and what we're doing to it.

[TeaForTara]

I inherited this same plant. I did manage to identify it a few years ago but now I can't remember its name. Meadowsweet came to mind but I've just image searched that and it doesn't look right.

It can take hard cutting back. You say it's your neighbours' - obviously you can only cut back what is growing in or hanging over your property.

[TeaForTara]

Oh, sorry, I see you already had it identified. It is also known as Douglas meadowsweet so I wasn't wrong.

[TarquinGyrfalcon]

We’ve got this in our garden. We just hack it back annually and then let it do its thing in the summer.
I quite like it - mind you, I like any plant that requires very little tender loving care from me.

[Footle]

Don't know how mine got here but I think it's quite exciting. And it does remind me of bottlebrush trees in Africa.