[Karen W.]

It is interesting their similarities as well as their dissimilarities!

[swelleyman (OP)]

Perception is always functionally selective!
Thanks very much for the 'Nyjer'!  Yes the plant structure and flower head is identical, AND .... GUESS WHAT .... earlier this year we bought some 'Thistle' seed to attract Finches.  So having been persuaded that it was a woodland sunflower I now have to realise that I was seeing only what I thought I was seeing rather than what was realy there!  The plant is similar in very many respects.  Despite the British situation of the pictured 'wild flower' mine do not like outdoor conditions and are far more the half-hardy plant.  Doubtless, at least one of the survivors will find itself out of doors when the flowers are seedheads, a huge 2 metre finch-foodhall!  One plant is about to flower so watch this space for the photo in a couple of weeks!  The seed merchant was right it was my 'fault' I must have had some seed adhere to my hands after I finished filling the 'Thistle seed' bottle, which of course co-incided with seed planting time for some of my tomato seed varieties!!  Presumably conditions on the ground beneath the bird feeders are too cold to allow germination - can't believe the sparrows and finches ate them all!
Thanks again for all your diligence.

[Don_1]

Just a little PS on this plant, I think you will find it's range in the UK (as a wild flower) is restricted to the more southerly regions.

Quoted from Dr. P. Llewellyn:
"It is found dotted all over southern England with decreasing frequency as you go north so there is little in Scotland or Wales and only one recorded site in Ireland. I suspect that with warmer summers and autumns though that these distribution data are already out of date."

[swelleyman (OP)]

For those folks not quite asleep with this thread - the latest developments on the Nyjer front!  The warm conservatory plant has finally flowered with buds bursting every day.  Hoping to save seed though branches are very friable and fall off with the minimal human traffic.
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[Don_1]

Maybe your soil is too rich and heavy.

Try it in a poorer well drained soil.

[swelleyman (OP)]

Cheers Don!  These plants were accidents but next year I will plant them deliberately in order to feed the finches. Although there are now, it seems, examples of these plants living in the wild, I feel that the seed will have to be treated as half hardy in my garden.  They will be planted as you suggest in some average soil and not, as they have this year, in tomato compost.  This is why I think they grew as such opulent plants.  Let's hope they don't colonise the garden - 'though that would mean a lot of birds!