Alien garden plant getting bigger ! ... 5/6/12

A while back I posted a picture of an odd plant in my garden that I had never seen before.
I had no takers on the ID and I'm still none the wiser.
It's a lot bigger now although as yet no sign of any flowers....
The pic below is the one I posted on 14th April, showing the plant as a cabbage-like rosette, about 9 inches across....

... the "loop" is my camera strap !
The pictures below show it as a 4 ft high spike

Very strange.... it may be one of the magic beans I lost when I sold the family cow, or a Triffid ?
More on this plant later.
Not much in the way of moths in the garden now that summer is over again, but a nice bug and spider were found....
I think the spider (Below) is Misumena vatia, Golden-rod Crab Spider

And the bug below is Arge pagana, feeding on Fennel