Fast growing and a good all round plant for beneath trees you get a ground cover with good foliage and the added attraction of flowers. Dead nettles create a unique tapestry beneath small trees or among plants that can stand up to the competition. Please keep reading to learn about this plant with a cautionary tale. Since it was so eager to spread, I dug it and moved it into a large bed, and it’s been performing wonderfully there ever since. Small, hooded, rosy-purple flowers open in attractive whorls at the end of the stems in late spring and continue sporadically into fall. Deadnettle is best for shade or partial shade, but you can grow the plant in sun if you’re willing to water it frequently. Similarly, deadnettle is easy to propagate by division. If it outgrows its boundaries, pulling wayward plants by hand is the best means of control. SOURCEBOOK FOR CONSIDERED LIVING Like There are about 50 Lamium species in the mint family. Spotted Dead Nettle is typically used as a groundcover in shady areas, and can cover large areas quickly. White Nancy Spotted Dead Nettle is a dense herbaceous perennial with a ground-hugging habit of growth. Relatively fine-textured foliage combines well with plants that have large leaves such as hostas for textural contrast, and with dark-leaved plants such as burgundy-colored coral bells. All Gardenista stories—from garden tours and expert advice to hand tools and furniture roundups. Being a vigorous growing groundcover, they are self-mulching. Although it may have an unfavorable reputation in some parts of the world, it is actually considered by some to be less aggressive than L. maculatum. Additionally, get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various perennial plants with our Perennials: A Field Guide. This plant will spread 12 to 24 inches, creating a full ground cover. Sourcebook for Cultivated Living, sister site to @remodelista Remodelista, Gardenista, 10 Easy Pieces, Steal This Look, 5 Quick Fixes, Design Sleuth, High/Low Design, Sourcebook for the Considered Home, and Sourcebook for Considered Living are ® registered trademarks of Remodelista, LLC. Good Ground Cover for Under Spruce Trees. Like spotted dead nettle, it spreads vigorously and is used as an effective ground cover. In warm regions and/or in sheltered areas of your yard, they may be evergreen. There is an aggressive variety, Lamium galeobdolon ‘Variegatum’, and if you turn your back it will creep and dominate every unoccupied garden space and be a nightmare to remove. When establishing a new planting of spotted dead nettle, space starts 6 to 10 inches apart. Browse our collection of more than 2,000 plants and seeds, which can be ordered directly from our favorite shops and growers. Plant family: mint family (Lamiaceae). This plant is typically used as a groundcover in shady areas, and can cover large areas quickly. Secondly it doesn’t cause too much distance to the original plants. This area is irrigated by small, drip spray heads. Native from Europe to western Asia. The time that you sow the seeds of Lamium is dependent upon the species that you are growing; Yellow ones should be sown in autumn; purple or white species should be sown in the spring. This plant blooms in late spring to early summer and is used as ground cover in woodland or shaded areas. Look here for advice on plants and hardscape materials. One important bit of deadnettle plant info to be aware of, however, is its possible invasiveness. A leaf node if the part of the stem where new shoots or leaves sprout from. This variety truly lives up to its invasive, mint-family reputation. Now for the dark side. They can also withstand humidity, making this a great ground cover to plan if you live in an area where summer weather is notoriously humid. Spruce (Picea spp.) Click here to browse or search the plants in this database. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. But then brutish slugs and snails can infiltrate and turn your plant into a mass of riddled holes or worse, a pile of mush. Purple Dragon Dead Nettle. Sprinkle the fertilizer on the ground around the plants and immediately rinse off any that falls on the leaves. The opposite leaves are silvery green with large silver blotches on the upper surface, lightening up a dark shady area. Dig out rhizomes to keep in bounds. Brightens shady areas, and tolerates dry shade conditions when established. If you’re concerned that the plant stings, don’t be. Most often these nodes are a couple of inches apart. Lamium (dead nettle) has attractive silvery green variegated foliage. Vivid orchid pink flowers stand out briskly on mounding form. The plant will spread easily from site to site and establishes without any extra effort on your part. Lamium, or dead nettle, is a perennial ground cover, often with variegation. The promise is that Lamiums are fast-growing perennial ground cover or container plants that brighten partly sunny spots and produce charming flowers. Heading somewhere? The spotted dead-nettle with its variegated leaves is a beautiful ground cover. Description of golden dead nettle: The golden dead nettle produces weak stems from 1 to 2 feet high. Don’t worry if the plant dies back in winter; this is normal in climates with cool winters. Looking at the leaves at the top of a plant...... not only are they covered with hair, they also change color — to lavender — or even a purple shade. Read more about purple dead nettle and henbit. Find more gardening information on Gardening Know How: Keep up to date with all that's happening in and around the garden. Vigorous growers that thrive in shade; Lamium maculatum is used as a ground cover. If you’re looking for ground cover—to fill a shady spot, to grow under a tree, or to burst into flower in August when everything else is drooping—see our new curated design guide to Ground Covers 101, which covers Dead Nettles 101 as well as our other favorites, including Bugleweed, Coral Bells, Lungwort, and Lilyturf. As members of the mint family, these plants have square stems, toothy-edged leaves, and a spreading habit (read: they can go crazy). Copyright © 2007-2020 Remodelista, LLC. Get more ideas on how to plant, grow, and care for various edible plants (including flowers, herbs and vegetables) with our Edible Plants: A Field Guide. Blooms are borne on leafy spikes from midspring to summer. See this plant in the following landscapes: Wild Side- A Shady Garden Go to … Deadnettle lawn alternatives are low-growing, blooming plants that produce silvery, blue-green or variegated foliage and flowers of purple, white, pink or silver, depending on the variety. Once sown, lightly cover seeds with topsoil. Gardenista’s members-only directory of landscape architects and garden designers. Lamium is an excellent ground cover perennial for shady areas, grown largely for its spreading foliage and colorful flowers. Dead Nettle is an herbaceous, spreading perennial that grows up to nearly 2'. Don’t plant near smaller plants or they may be overtaken. Silvery white leaves with green edges form a lush groundcover that is topped by charming deep purple flowers in summer. Fast growing; Spotted dead nettle is a good ground cover for moist, shady areas. Can be invasive in fertile, moist soils. I need to start with some honesty. White dead nettle combines well with a variety of grasses, forget-me-nots, primroses and other wildflowers. Heart-shaped, tooth-edged leaves, often marked with white or silver, are borne in opposite pairs; clustered flowers come in pink, white, yellow, lavender. Profile of spotted dead-nettle: Scientific name: Lamium maculatum. And then there’s the other types such as L. maculatum ‘Orchid Frost’, which at first boast stunning silver leaves and sweet two-lipped flowers. Tip: Varieties with silver leaves often need more light to maintain their color. Its ornamental value is twofold: It bears splendid blossoms in various colors (depending on the variety), and it displays eye-catching silver leaves , … Prepare for the inevitable invasion by applying a pet- and wildlife-safe bait such as Sluggo ($12.16 for 2 1/2 pounds of pellets from Amazon). Receive the Gardenista newsletter in your inbox daily. Slugs, snails, mildew, and leaf spot are common. Alternatively, use a dilute solution of water-soluble fertilizer that you can spray directly on the foliage. Dead nettle is one of those plants that almost has everything going for it, until it doesn’t. They do not, however, thrive in poorly drained or compacted soil and many types suffer from wintry wet soils with crown or stem rot. Lamium (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 40–50 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus.They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but several have become very successful weeds of crop fields and are now widely naturalised across much of the temperate world. Creeping Charlie is also known as ground ivy, Alehoof, Catsfoot, creeping jenny, gill-over-the-ground, haymaids, field balm, run-away-robin and tunhoof. Dead-nettle thrives in a wide range of soils including clay. You can also dig the plants and move them to more desirable locations. Pink Pewter Lamium Plant (Dead-nettle) Price: 13.95 Starts Shipping April … See our obsessively curated catalog of favorite products sourced by the Gardenista editors. Trim deadnettle after the first flush of blooms and again at the end of the season to keep the plant tidy and to produce bushy, compact plants. Although it is unsightly, it seems to recover again each spring and remains healthy throughout the spring and summer. Choose Lamium groundcover to add pretty purple and pink color to your yard. The only way to get rid of it is to diligently dig out its rhizomes. Mainly grown for their two-toned leaves, which can be frosted or marked with splashes, Lamium also sometimes surprise you in late spring or summer with flowers that are relatively small, resembling snapdragons, and in colors ranging from white to pink to purple. Grow the quick-growing ground cover in moist but well-drained soil in partial or full shade. 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