Mystery solved!

Back in May, I posted the photo of a lovely mystery plant that had made a home for itself in my rain garden.  No one could positively identify it.  I just enjoyed its lovely purple flowers as it bloomed all summer long.

This past week, I was privileged to attend the Alabama Master Gardeners Fall Conference.  Since the mystery plant was still blooming, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to once again attempt to identify it. 

Within 15 minutes of arriving at the conference with my cutting, three experts quickly identified this delightful flower as . . . drum roll please . . . rigid verbena!  Some of my blog friends had suggested some type of verbena back in May so kudos to you, as well.

Rigid verbena is supposedly a fairly common wild flower, that happily makes its home in just about any sunny location.  Some experts even consider it invasive. 

This mystery invader is more than welcome in my backyard!