It is hard for me to tell definitively from the photo, but my best guess is common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) based on your description. You could do a search for common mullein and see if that looks like the plant you have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Common mullein

Unreal! Thanks kchd! I believe you are right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbascum_thapsus

Hi kchd,

I have included a close-up of the buds. Mullein?

Ken

It sure does look like common mullein! Too bad it's a naughty invasive. You could always use those velvety leaves for toilet paper [chuckle]

Common mullein is biennial for me. The first year plants are large silver gray rosettes; the corncob blooms come the second year. We have a stone wall built by early inhabitants of our 1830 house (that's old in Indiana). The wall retains our yard but the land drops off sharply behind it. It is visible from a good distance away from the other side of a half acre pond. When things work out the way I want there are a variety of hardy geraniums at the foot of the 6+ foot tall wall with a few rudbeckia triloba also biennial scattered along and somewhere in the 15 foot long wall picture one or two mullein. In special falls Virginia Creeper
turns cordovan red where it hangs over the top of the wall.

I've tried some of the cultivated verbascums but none of them are as impressive as common mullein.