There are many species of Epilobium, some of which have had name changes, like the fireweed. Some are native, some are introduced weeds. There's only one fireweed though, by whatever name. Watson's willowherb is a common garden weed, I think it's Epilobium ciliatum now, used to be Epilobium watsonii. Dry or damp, sun or shade, tall and rank or short and sparse. Seeds, no runners. The one in your garden is probably the Watson's although you may also have others like Epilobium minutum in dry spots. I'm sure bboy is much more knowledgeable about the various species than I am, I usually do well enough just going by 'Epilobium species'. What you have in the photos on the Weeds forum sure look like Watson's willowherb gone to seed. They've done really well this year with the cool damp spring. But the photos do need to be larger to really see. I'm just guessing from the silhouette.

Yes, indeed, that what it looks like. It's odd that a weed should be coming up in a nice row along my back fence! Thanks very much!

Thanks guys. I was panicking. I am relieved that I found out about this GM before the seed pods expoded. I am so MAD at whoever sold me these things. Maybe the guy will have a stand again this year and I can discuss this with him. What I did is cut the GM plant off with snippers and leave about 4" of stem and then sparayed the cut tips with Round-Up. I know that one should spray the leaves but I was afraid the seeds would ripen while I was waiting for the Round-Up to travel to the roots. This method worked for some Ivy that was growing all over the house when I bought it. I did do some reading before posting but wanted to gain some insight into anyone's 'real life' experience with eradicating GM. Most of the info I read was from .edu sites giving advice like on burning whole fields of the stuff or geredener's blogs whining how they can't get rid of GM ever. I set the GW stems with the pods on the hot sidewalk for a half a day but they didn't wilt or anything. I then sprayed them with R-U and bagged them in plastic and put them in my regular garbage instead of the 'yard waste' bin that the city picks up, because they dump that in a place were it composts and residents go there and shovel what they need out of there. I don't want to see any one get any of those seeds that I read can be dormant for 5-6 years and then sprout. I was being paranoid about the hostas I bought from the same place. As you can see from my profile I am somewhat of a 'hostaholic' although I believe in the 10' rule. The hosta forum and the cottage garden forum are my 'home base' here. The HVX virus has run panic thoughout the hosta community. I know what to look for, and usually isolate any new hosta, even those bought from "reputable" sources as it has been pointed out in the hosta forum, that even Monrovia has been sending out infected hostas. Even so, one could slip through and wipe out everything. But with these I bought from this place I put them in place right away. So far they look healthy and I think they are fine. I was thinking if this guy sold garlic mustard ignorantly, that he may have not been aware of the HVX virus and sold infected hostas. I did spray Round-Up on everything else I bought when I bought these GM. I don't trust any of those plants now. I wasn't happy with the way they looked anyway. They looked cute and bushy when I bought them in their pots, but this year they ended up being VINES snaking through my garden. I was thinking about moving them to a better spot for vines but I am not taking any chances with after this GM debacle.I don't know what they are but they are GONE. Gone. Gone. On a side note, two other experiences I had as a newbie gardener back when I first bought my house; I bought some seeds and planted them in front of a trellis, they were *bindweed*. They never went up the trellis but tangled themselves up in all my rose bushes (Ouch! Getting it out.). Thank god they didn't get into my lawn. And I bought a can of "wildflower" mix (Yeah, I know. I know.....) that had *yarrow* in it. That yarrow sent out runners and I had it all over my lawn. It took YEARS to get it under control. Thanks again for the quick response. I feel so stupid for even buying garlic mustard in the first place. I am sure somehwere, someone is reading my post and snickering at my naivety.

Well it’s pouring out right now, pretty badly actually so I don’t want to run and check...but looking closer at the pic it does seem whiter on the backside from what I can see? So maybe you’re right...is this something I should pull, or just let it die out?