Thalictrum appears to be the plant but we will wait to see the flowers shape and color to decide which one. Many thanks to the posters so I could have a name to search for images.

Karen, No, not Echinacea. Way too big for that in my gardens right now. Actually, the Echs are just starting to emerge. No fuzziness either in the leaves. Been trying to garden with gloves and since I've been gardening without for decades it's difficult. :O) Vera, No not Pensteman. The leaves are too dainty. Not thick enough. Carrie, I have Sundrops coming up in another section of the gardens and since our weather is still cool they are a deep puprple. This plant is also too fluffy with leaves to be a Sundrop. Dame's Rocket. Now that's a thought. I had it in another garden about 20 feet away, not sure if it's still there. In the other garden it grew among Phlox Paniculata. The soil was not as rich there, so the leaves were not that poofy and the plants not as robust. There doesn't appear to be any returning in that other garden and so it is difficult for me to even compare the leaf structure. Well, it's staying put for now. There is another close by, up against the foundation of the house. It's going to stay too. I'll keep you posted. Kind of hope it's Dame's Rocket - just for the smell of it!!

Thanks so much for all the info and opinions. GingerBlue, would geum be growing wild in my woods? although I did plant a Mrs. Bradshaw last summer that died out on me rather quickly, but it is possible that it seeded first, but that was 12 feet or more from this one. And was downhill, seems unlikely? Is there a native variety I am not aware of? So at this point we would say #3 is a candidate for Round up? #1 I don't think is Indian Mock Strawberry since I see no evidence of that type of growth habit on any of them, and wouldn't they have flowers on them by now? So maybe it is a geum? Any other opinions on #1? The alder shrub (I think that is what it is, thanks esh) I assume should stay right? As long as it is not an aggressive I will keep it as it is behind my planting beds in a section where the runoff has channeled a ditch.

We grow tons of four o'clocks, but then we have the space for them to grow rampantly and reseed so it isn't a problem that they can be so invasive. I do try my best to keep them outside the fenced veggie garden, though I've let some of them stay in the fenceline. That wasn't my plan, but I'd have to dig so deeply to get them out that it would leave the rabbits and other critters with a big deep spot with soft soil so they could come under the fence, so I'd rather have 4 o'clocks growing in the fenceline than rabbits growing in the garden. I use four o'clocks as a compost crop too. Because mine are in morning sun/afternoon shade, a lot of them get really tall (like 5-6' tall) stretching for the sunlight, and then they get heavy with blooms and start falling over. I go out with the lopping shears and selectively cut back a bunch of them right down to the ground, giving me tons of biomass for the compost piles. They regrow in no time at all. Not only do the hummingbirds love them, but so do all the night-flying moths. I love them too---they are very tough and can survive tremendous heat on low rainfall. Their scent perfumes the whole yard in the evenings. I consider four o'clocks a garden friend. Even my dad, who mostly grew veggies and fruit and didn't plant a lot of flowers, grew 4 o'clocks. If you like to have a nice, neat garden with plants that stay nicely in the spot where you put them, I can see where they could become a garden foe. I am very careful to pull out the 4 billion little four o'clock seedlings that sprout in the spring where I don't want them. Because I've tossed so many big four o'clock plants on compost piles over the years, we now have four o'clocks not just in their original location, but in the three compost piles that are scattered around our place. It is so hard to find plants that tolerate clay soil and very low rainfall in summer, and four o'clocks do both, so I love them. They're also one of the prettiest compost crops I grow.