Is this a weed or not?

[live free and garden]

Hi all -

Recently moved into a new house and found these growing this year. My step mother gardens a lot and thought these were weeds but now they are blossoming so my wife thinks she may have been wrong.

Here are a couple pics (take a look at the red flowers blooming in the first one) -

[MarcP]

Those red flowers make me think of bee balm or bergamot. Compare that with what you have.
Here is a picture that I took today of my bee balm.

[live free and garden]

Thanks MarcP! That certainly looks to be it - I'll take a look this week to confirm. Appreciate the help!

[Mr_bobo_]

Monarda is Latin name ... and that plant vanish from my garden this year...

[rainbowgardener]

Hi Mr. Bobo ! Check out the plants in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=53690

can you ID them? thanks

[cynthia_h]

A weed is the wrong plant in the wrong place, whether or not it's been identified.

I had the wonderful (?) experience, when we lived in Berkeley, of uprooting hundreds of identical weeds one week: tomato seedlings. They were under my roses. The compost hadn't killed the tomato seeds; thus everywhere I spread compost, there was a thick growth of tomato seedlings, almost like grass.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9