Sweet potato? Could you take a closer picture of the leaves and a cleaned tuber?

Looks like a dahlia plant to me. In other words a popular garden flower and not a weed at all.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=dahlia+plants&qpvt=dahlia+plants&form=IARRSM&first=1&scenario=ImageBasicHover

Yes, they’re robust healthy dahlias. Try to replant them, water well and hope you haven’t done too much damage. Just a picture of the leaves would have sufficed for an id. Next time ask here first before ripping😉

working off embos link : https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=dahlia%20roots&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=dahlia%20roots&sc=2-12&cvid=5DE9DDA769104B4AB1A69661880381BF&first=1&scenario=ImageBasicHover

for me.. the tubers are tender.. and they have to be dug out in fall and stored indoors ...

as such... they take a good while to get going.. once put in the ground in late spring after all frost/freeze is gone ... sooo.;... for me.. august is just about prime bloom time ...

i am very surprised how small your are and that they are not in flower ... unless youve been mowing them or some such

where are you in CA that they are not tender??? ... over on the left coast????

ken

The size of the clump implies they have probably already overwintered at least once.

Thanks. They were buried around a bunch of lavender plants and a bunch of creeping buttercup. The tubers in a bunch of cases were mushy as well. And yes. Despite a lot of sun this past month where everything is growing like crazy, no life in these guys in terms of flowering.

The things one finds in a new old house.

They flower late in the season. There’s still time. The plant in the picture has flowering stems forming.

The mushy ones are goners.

Where are you located? Sounds like they are marginally hardy there. If a new to you home the previous owners may have just left them in the ground instead of digging and storing them.

tj

Ha. In Vancouver. And yes I don't think these were dug out and stored ever. Had lavender growing around the tubers.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Managed to rip a bunch out. Any ideas?

Yes. Maybe ask for an id before ripping them out? :)

As long as the soil is well drained - which it should be if lavender is able to grow there - then dahlia tubers overwinter in the ground very well here in the PNW. But our soils are so slow to warm up in spring, dahlia tubers left in the ground get off to a very slow start. They are very definitely a late summer into fall flowering plant under these conditions.

I don't think it will cause any problems.