This is popping up all over my garden and is about to bloom. At first, I thought it was a flower, but now I'm suspecting it might be a nasty weed. Anybody recognize it?
The plant seems very like one I have encountered in gardens as a weed (read unwanted by the gardens' owners). My recommendation is that before you let many of them flower and procreate, select two small bunches/clusters that are in spots of the garden where you do not mind them being. Pull all the rest. Once they have flowered it will be much easier to identify. If what I see in the picture is accurate, leaf and stem interspersed in the bunch of flower buds...My gut says it is in either the Aster family or snapdragon order/family. Asters tend to have round to flattish tipped buds and many narrow petals. (Loosely) Snapdragons tend to have oblong to narrow buds rounded to pointed at the tip. It looks like the buds pop next week if you are having 70 degree plus weather, longer if it is cooler. Snap us a pic of them.
The flower buds suggest something in the family Asteraceae to me, possibly a Rudbeckia (?). Post another pic when the flowers open. As to whether it is a weed or not - if you like the flowers when they appear, keep it; if you don't, pull them out before they can go to seed.
