Have you planted this plant, it looks like it belongs to the buttercup family, could it be the creeping buttercup? the small cnifer, is it a goldcrest? today have been examining a large one with the same prblems as yours, no signs of conifer aphid but in the leaf axils very small signs of what looks like a type of wooly aphid, i am still not sure, all the goldcrests recently that i have seen have the same problem, could it be the Hard frosts, this long dry spell or a type of aphid, i am determined to find out though, julien.

I thought at first it might be a trollius. What a let down if it is just a creeping buttercup! You will soon know as it will send out runners all over the place if that's what it is.

I think it looks like a normal buttercup. You wouldn't be the first to nurture a weed with great hope.

Yep! Looks like the weedy buttercup.

I think it's a buttercup too! But then they do say a weed is just a plant in the wrong place!

Thanks for all your replies peeps! Dont you just love it when what you think is a pretty little plant turns out to be a weed! Saying that if I do actually like it as a little space filler is it worth keeping in or will it cause me a problem and spread out of control? As for the conifer Julien I dont what variety it is and not investigated the aphid avenue yet (mainly because I dont know what it is and need to do some googling!)