By Patricia23q
Surrey,
United Kingdom 
Does anyone recognise this plant? It is approximately 5ft tall and is spreading rapidly in my garden.
19 Jun, 2015
Answers
Flower looks like wild chicory but round here on the verges you would be lucky to see a plant more than 2ft tall.
19 Jun, 2015
Blue sow thistle?
19 Jun, 2015
Never heard of blue sow thistle before, but images look possible.
19 Jun, 2015
I found a plant growing in a friends garden and Wakehurst Place Millenium seed bank confirmed it, they are 5 minutes away from me.
19 Jun, 2015
Blue sow thistle is Cicerbita plumieri and wild chicory is Cichorium intybus.
However when you Google images they both appear under each others headings.
can you add a clearer picture of the leaves too. chicory has a more woody stem.
19 Jun, 2015
Thank you for your help. I plan to reduce the number of plants but not eliminate it entirely. Our garden is not 'pin neat' so a few sow thistle will not look out of place, as long as I can contain it.
19 Jun, 2015
Cicerbita macrophylla would be my guess.
19 Jun, 2015
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My first thought was chicory but could do with seeing the leaves to be certain.
19 Jun, 2015