Can you identify this plant

[Dodie66]

Trying to find out what this plant is for a friend who is now on Mumsnet. She thought it might be a foxglove. Any ideas?

Not on Mumsnet

Yes foxglove, might be an ornamental variety which is why quite a large clump.

Looks like foxglove leaves.

Hmm. Could be foxglove. But it also looks like it could be a clump of comfrey. Does your friend have a picture of the plant when it's flowering/or even just a close up picture?

Somebody else said comfrey. It’s just come up in her garden so she doesn’t know what the flowers are like yet

Could also be Salvia but difficult to tell from the picture

comfrey and alkanet are both flowering already. both look similar to foxglove.

both comfrey and alkanet have enormous roots. if it's easy to dig out it's foxglove.
and both confrey and alkanet have spikey stems and leaves that leave you with scratches.

Thanks. I’ll tell her to investigate if it’s spikey

I'd go with foxglove - maybe a number of seedlings coming up together.

Comfrey likes
To Spread and make a nice little picnic blanket for itself.

She said it’s not spikey

We have lots of Foxgloves and they look like the plant in your pic.

Foxglove.

Comfrey and alkanet have rich green leaves. The leaves in your picture have a blueish tinge which would point to foxglove. Foxglove is normally biennial, but sometimes it doesn't die after flowering and then it seems to come back as a clump like this.

Thanks everyone. I’ll update when it flowers

Update. She just sent me a photo and it’s foxgloves. She has over 40 plants all over her garden which must have seeds somehow

Foxgloves have very long lasting soils, They're natural niche is to sit in the woodland seedbank for years, then, when a tree falls down, upturning soil as its roots are ripped out, and letting light in, some of the foxglove seeds are brought to the surface and are triggered by the light to germinate, So if you have foxgloves in your seedbank, and turn the soil over for any reason, you get a crop of plants. We had an amazing display, over 100, in the front garden the year after we built our pond.