Could this be a sunflower?

[Davethecat2000]

It's been growing for ages as a spindly stalk, I al most pulled it up a couple of times as thought it was a weed.

All of a sudden it has a weird looking ( and slightly sinister!) bud appearing.

Could it be a late blooming sunflower, or something else?

Weed (not the smoking kind)

Thank you!

Will wait to see what it opens into and then pull the bugger up!

That's definitely a sunflower. If you didn't plant it, it could be from bird seed

Sunflower.

That’s an unsafe identification unless you are also going to tell us which species of weed.

happy if I'm wrong. Which subtype of sunflower has leaves like that, or blooms in September in UK?

It's a sunflower

Or shape, both leaf shape and veins (colour, pattern) don't match

A weed is any plant you don't want.

I've still got sunflowers that are in my garden yet to bloom.
I think blooming depends on the weather conditions throughout the year.

One had darker veins in the leaves like the ones in the pic. The others had lighter veins.

I did plant some red sunflowers my MiL gave me much earlier in the summer, but mist were dug up by my cat and then with tge drought over the summer as nothing had sprung up I presumed they had all gone.

Maybe it is actually a red sunflower 🌻

I'll post another pic up when it opens

Looks like my red sunflowers - which bloom in autumn.

Leaves don’t look like sunflower. They look more like a peony but the bud doesn’t.

can’t remember what it’s called but there’s a free app that identifies plants. Maybe smart plant?

I put your pic into my Picture This app and it said Sunflower 🌻

Isn't it one of those red sunflowers?

Adult DS has been having fun with seeds this year.
This is one of his dark red sunflowers in early and then middle of August 🥰

Or shape, both leaf shape and veins (colour, pattern) don't match Vein colour is fine for one of the dark red varieties, pattern and leaf shape seems within the range of natural variation. Bud is dead right for sunflower. If not sunflower,some other Asteraceae, so which Asteraceae wild flower would match?

Flowering time isn’t totally reliable. Many spring flowers have a second flush in autumn (I saw a cowslip in flower at the weekend), flowers can appear late if they’ve had a bad start (as this one seems to have). But not being in the SE this is the time I’d expect to see sunflowers.

A weed is any plant you don't want. But to know you don’t want it, you need to know what it is.

They look more like a peony but the bud doesn’t. Puzzled by this. Peonies have deeply lobed leaves, this has simple leaves.

Thanks everyone. Hoping it is a sunflower.. didnt expect any this year as my stupid cat keeps digging up my flowerbeds!

Please update us when it flowers?

@lljkk I will do.

Quite excited for some strange reason.. I've grown sunflowers before but they've never looked like this one, or taken so long to come to fruition!

MereDintofPandiculation · Yesterday 14:51
They look more like a peony but the bud doesn’t. Puzzled by this. Peonies have deeply lobed leaves, this has simple leaves.“

maybe I’ve been sold a dud 🤣

my stupid cat keeps digging up my flowerbeds! You mean “my intelligent cat who has different priorities from me”

Looks like my red sunflowers which are just finishing flowering now. A lot of things are flowering much later due to the dry conditions, my runner beans which I'm usually collecting mid august are only just flowering now.

Sunflower update if anyone is interested!

Still a bud, hoping it will open before a cold snap arrives!