Can someone identify this plant for me please?

[DaveyStott]

It's growing in the garden of my new house

[HappydaysArehere]

Fascinating. Showed my husband and he has been gardening since the year dot. He couldn't recognise it from photo. At first glance he thought Lilly of the valley but said it wasn't that. Also, the stem looks longer in one photo than the big picture. Wondering if it might help to snip one head plus leaf off and place against something plain and dark for a close up picture. I've got a couple of Royal Horticultural books I could look through. I enjoy painting flowers so am interested. Pretty little things tho.

[WestmorlandSausage]

is it perhaps a posh gypsophila (baby's breath)? Gypsophila Perfekta or similar?

[figgypuddings]

Is it a sedum?

[eddielizzard]

i would vote for gypsophila too.

[Thumbwitch]

OH I don't know what it's called but it used to grow in my grandmother's garden too! Love it, so pretty.

[Thumbwitch]

It's almost like a type of yarrow but without the structure to the flower head, and no smell

[Thumbwitch]

It's got the wrong leaf and stem structure for a gypsophila. Still searching for yarrow-like plants!

[DaveyStott]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It reminded me of gypsophilia too. My internet searches came up with meadowsweet as the nearest match, but that didn't seem right either. Will try to take some better photos later when I'm home. It is very pretty, this is at least its second flowering - flowered about a month ago.

[wowfudge]

Looking at the leaves, I think it could be an astilbe of some sort.

[Dapplegrey]

Is it white Jacobs Ladder?

[Dapplegrey]

I don't know how to do links, but google white Jacobs ladder and press images. It could be this.

[Thumbwitch]

Looks more like meadowsweet in the flower but the leaves are all wrong.

[Thumbwitch]

Gotcha! It is this: Filipendula vulgaris flore plena. Ignore any suggestion that it might also be called dropwort, as that looks completely different.

[NellVarnish]

Looks a bit like a philadelphus to me although the flowers look much smaller. Does it smell of orange blossom?

[Thumbwitch]

Sorry, meant to do the link Filipendula vulgaris flore plena :)

[DaveyStott]

Hello. Sorry I forgot to come back to the thread . I asked on the Gardeners World forum. This was their response:
We reckon it's a double-form of the perennial Filipendula vulgaris, or dropwort, judging by its fern-like leaves. It occurs naturally on chalky soil and limestone grassland - preferring drier soil to its cousin, the meadowsweet. It grows from tubers which hang from its roots (hence pendulus within the genus name).
So they concur with you Thumbwitch, though they also call it a dropwort?

[Thumbwitch]

Yeah, when I saw dropwort, I put that into google images and what came up looked completely different so someone somewhere has got that mixed up! the Latin name was so much harder to keep typing, I'd have happily linked you up to Dropwort if it looked the same!

[Dapplegrey]

Well done, thumbwitch!

[eddielizzard]

yes, very impressive!

[Thumbwitch]

Aw thanks - I did have a bit of a vested interest though, now I can tell Dad what it's called too He transplanted some of it out of my grandma's garden to his garden, and has never known what it is.