Is this Valerian?

We bought this plant at a plant sale in one of the open gardens we visit, some two years or so ago. Much to John's horror it has to be said, as he told me it was growing along the verges in our lane, which turned out to be true! And yes, it's a spreader. But it's also very lovely. I never checked but simply assumed it was indeed the common valerian. But I have started to doubt that. The leaves for one are not like valerian leaves are described in my various wildflower books. So I did a Google image search, and yes, that came back as valerian but the pictures shown on the search looked very much like this plant but not exactly the same. So I'm sharing 3 pictures of it in various views to see if anyone has a more satisfactory answer for me.

Whatever it's name it's looking so lovely against the wall. However from that one original plant we now have about 7, so it might be time to try and cut off the flowerheads before they start to set (and spread) seed.

It was wonderfully sunny first thing this morning, and there seems to be a pattern of sunshine first thing in the morning and then in the evenings but cloudy during the day. It is however a lot warmer which is a great improvement and it means butterflies are now busy in the garden.

And spiders have been working hard too.

 

P.S.

Thanks to a facebook friend (who used to blip too in the past) the plant at the top has now been identified as Valeriana Tripteris. Thanks, Nigel!

 

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