We had some teasels in our top garden. They are biennial. The first year, they looked like giant primrose leaves. We had no clue what they were, but we thought, let’s leave them and see what happens. They didn’t die back in the autumn, but the following summer they grew taller and taller, up to 2m, and we only realised what they were going to be when the iconic teasel-heads started to appear. The dried out hollow teasels were still standing in early spring this year, while a new generation of first-year teasels had started. Down in the watermeadow, meanwhile a couple of clumps of second-year teasels seemed to spring out of nowhere, as we obviously didn’t see the telltale leaves last summer.
There is another type of Teasel, Fuller’s Teasel, that has escaped from cultivation. Those teasels were grown to use in the textile industry. They were set on rollers to brush the cloth to give it a softer and more luxurious feel.