I would have thought this was a weed based on it's location, lack of a tag, and lack of memory of anything it could be, but it bloomed before I got around to yanking it out, and I'm thinking it was something that I might want

Salvia , don't know which one. the closest I have would be rose queen.

took a bit to find my photo

Salvia nemorosa ‘Plumosa’ looks a good match .. the photo in the following link is above the name.

http://www.growsonyou.com/spri...

http://www.google.co.uk/search...

The scary thing is that I have absolutely no memory of this plant at all! So to have 2 of them really baffles me!
You both have good guesses as to the cultivar, but since my memory seems to be on vacation, I can't verify.

Thanks for your help!!!

Two pretty salvias are definitely something you want, no matter where they came from. Maybe they're gifts from the birds.

Karen

I think you have enough on your mind to be remembering plant names Trish! The open flowers might help.

Gifts from birds seem to be possible, I hear Storks favour the Whitinger household.

Hey, I see you have a Whitinger website!

http://whitinger.net/

Storks

Karen

Plant names I forget, but to forget even having the plant is the part that has me flummoxed! That's never happened before.
There are worse things, I suppose

Karen- I agree, and it appears that it is a pretty salvia that survived the drought, so that's several additional points in it's favor!

sniff it it, different salvias smell vastly different. S. nemerosa always smells like cat pee to me.

Rose Queen looks to have more slender flower spikes ..

http://www.rhsplants.co.uk/pla...

http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants...

http://www.missouribotanicalga...

The flowers on 'Plumosa' look to be in a more "plumose" form with side branches, much like Trish's plant. The colour is closer to Plumosa too, but there might be others.