Mystery Solved

Ilene, aka therockwhisperer, identified the plant as an amaranth, the species being Love Lies Bleeding.  She said she has been trying for years to get one started.  And here I have cut the plants down!  The weeds we have in the pastures are also from the amaranth family and they take over if left.  They have sharp stickers and make millions of seeds; it's a terrible plant to have in a vegetable garden.  Maybe this plant wouldn't have been so aggressive but I just couldn't take the chance.  There are a lot of good pictures of its blooms on the internet and I'll admit, it's an interesting plant.

So thanks, Ilene, for sharing your knowledge.  Wish you could have had these plants.

And, thanks for all who commented about the mystery plant.

Charlotte

After reading some latter comments, I wanted to add that the flower in my header photo is called a Spider Lily.  They reseed every year, although I've never been able to get one started from purchased seeds.