What are these horrid aggressive plants ?

[wetandmiserable]

These are in my garden and come back every year (been here 8 years). One year I had a gardener completely dig them up but they were back a few weeks later and will be about 4 feet high or more if left to their own devices, which I'm afraid they often are.

This year I've obviously been on top of it a lot more and have been pulling them up and digging the roots, which are like turnips. I have dug up so much but after being away for just under a week this is what I have come back to - they've eaten up my begonias! Any ideas and will anything ever get rid of them?

The leaves look most like foxglove, but they're not perennial. In which case they're something in the forget-me-not family Boraginaceae - leaves aren't right for green alkanet, so I would imagine it's one of the comfreys, although I'm not sure about "roots like turnips".

Have you ever seen any flowers on them?

It's a Common Comfrey according to my app.

I have thought foxgloves but I don't think they ever flower - I think they might have had purple trumpet shaped flowers one year when they got particularly massive but not in the last 4 years or so.

Off to Google comfrey now!

Common comfrey doesn't look like the type I've got but wiki describes it as having a black turnip shaped root.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphytum_officinale

It looks like the comfrey I have up at my allotment, it is really well established and the roots are very thick. I would keep cutting to ground level, and try digging the roots up once the plant is dormant.

Comfrey , it digs up easily enough but you will need to look for seedlings as it has probably seeded readily in the area local to the plant

The plant from hell! I spent the weekend removing a further invasion. Huge roots, they keep reappearing before you can blink. Solidarity! I'm in it with you!

I'm sure they're something called Evergreen bugloss OP, if they came out with purple/blue flowers. They are a NIGHTMARE, my garden is full in certain areas and multiple years they have to be dug up and they always re grow. This year I spent days digging up what I was sure was all the roots (big black like a root veg) in an area I wanted to plant grass seed and obviously didn't do the best job because a lot have grown back at lightening speed!

It looks a little like comfrey to me, which makes a fabulous feed. Pull the leaves off, stick them in a bucket and cover with water. Leave for a fortnight and then dilute in water (1 part comfrey: 10 parts water) and use over your plants. If it's determined to live in your garden then make the bugger earn its keep!

Evergreen bugloss is the US name for green alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens, and it isn't that (it doesn't grow to 4 feet, for one thing).

If it's comfrey like it looks to be it's brilliant, just chop it down regularly and chop it up around your plants, it decomposes really fast and acts as a fertilizer, I use it on my allotment too like a pp said. It also has lovely pink flowers that bees go crazy for. Leaving it to flower would help you to ID it.

Could it be borage? Are the flowers small blue star shaped things?

If so it’s a total bastard to get rid of. I’ve tried for five years! It’s still coming back

It’s green alkanet.

Op says when it flowered it had purple trumpet shaped flowers, which means it is more likely comfrey.

This app can tell you