Solved Plant i.d. please.

My first post on the forum and hopefully you can help me with identifying this plant? I keep the labels from all the plants I buy so I'm surprised I don't have a label for this one. Either it has self seeded or it's a whopping type of weed!

 

Hi Harri and welcome to the forum. I believe you have a Leycesteria formosa, the Himalayan Honeysuckle.

 

Hi Victoria and thanks for the reply. And yes, Himalayan Honeysuckle it is. Well I've been in this house 10 years and maybe it popped up 5 or so years ago. And I really don't remember planting it. I've just been chopping it down to the ground so it must be pretty hardy! It's pretty enough to stay where it is I guess in a front border. I wonder what I would have done with it if you had told me it was a big weed?

 

A gift from the birds.

 

Ha ha yes it took a while for the penny to drop, a gift from the birds indeed!

 

Couple of pics.
Seedlings look nothing like adult shrubs.

 

Common names are Pheasant Berry and Granny's Curls, there is also a sickly looking yellow leaved variety called Golden Lanterns.

 

I rather like it....
Leycesteria formosa Golden Lantern..see pics

 

Hidden easter egg with this shrub. When the berries start to turn a brownish colour, squidge them between your fingers and they have a very nice caramel toffee smell. Apparently you can eat them when ripe, but they're bitter as hell when they're not

 

A very interesting plant then. I've taken some cuttings as I read they can be propagated by cuttings but I'm not too convinced as the stalks are hollow! We'll see.

 

Propagation from seed is the way to go.....if you want them or not!