Plant identification - help please

Hi everyone

I've just joined this forum as I'm looking to get a quick start on gardening in London. We normally have a small herb & flower balcony garden in Melbourne (Australia).
At the moment we're renting a place in South East London for 6 months. The small garden here has not seen any love for a long time.

The front garden faces east and contains mostly weeds that have gone to seed and this plant with bright fushcia flowers that has really taken hold (2 photos attached).

Its probably a really common plant, can anyone please help me identify it? I am trying to decide if we should just cut it back and leave it as it obviously has been flourishing in the neglect.

Thank you in advance.

 

Hi Millicent and welcome to GC and to the UK from Australia. I am an escapee from the UK to Portugal.

Your plant is the Marvel of Peru which grows wild here and I love it. It freely seeds itself.

Mirabilis jalapa - Wikipedia

 

Thank you for the quick response Victoria. I've read up on it (thanks for the link) and it sounds like we should just trim it back a little and keep it there for some easy colour!

 

to the UK and, most especially, to GC @Millicent_G

 

Mirabilis will die down at the first frost, or very soon after, so best left at the moment.
It grows from tubers that lie dormant all winter and are not totally hardy.

 

They're hardy here, @pete! Probably hardy in sheltered London too? If you want to keep them, @Millicent_G , you could cover the tubers with a dry-ish mulch in winter. Just in case....