Lamium (Dead Nettles)
Lamium | Dead Nettle, One of the best shade plants you get plant in your garden. Be care though as they can get out of control.
| Hosta | Perennial |
|---|---|
| Bloom Time | Late Spring to Early Summer |
| Light | Light to Deep Shade |
| Water | Well Drained - Moist Soil |
| Diseases | Leaf Spot Mildew |
| Pests | None |
| Propagation | Divisions, Seed |
| Color | White, Purple, Yellow |
| Zones | 3 - 8 |
Lamium (Dead Nettles)
Lamium is a great shade to deep shade ground cover. They usually grow with a mounding habit and will cover a bare area within the time span of about half a growing season, if watered and fed properly.
You can space them at least at 24" o.c. and they will quickly fill in. They provide a wonderful weed barrier, but I would limit them to a confined area.
They can even leap over the border division is not watched and you will have them growing all over, left unchecked.
Do not plan on anything other than large shrubs to be planted within a Lamium border unless you are willing to frequently cut the nettle back and dig up the plantlet's.
If left to grow in a woods area with moist soil and lots of under story leaf cover, they will quickly take over the entire area.
Lamium are remarkably easy to divide. You can basically treat them however you like and they will come bouncing back to life with a little water.
I just dig up a big healthy clump with a garden form and then rip apart the fibrous roots into smaller divisions, each with 2 or 3 healthy runners attached.
I don't even fertilize the plantlet's. I just water them in and let them take off.
It is also possible to start them by seed, although I don't know why anyone other than growers would be interested in doing that.
Lamium (Dead Nettles)
Shade, shade and more shade. They absolutely love it. I had a bunch of Dead Nettle as part of a 5 acre site that was totally wooded. Lamium was a great addition to that site. They grow were a limited number of plants will survive.
If given moisture and mulch, they will grow even faster and look healthier and stand much taller.
You can cut them back in the fall by running over the entire border with a mower deck set to high. This will facilitate leaf cleanup and keep the plants in check.
Lamium (Dead Nettles)
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Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver': has thick whorls of purple pink two-lipped flowers from spring through fall if deadheaded routinely and not allowed to desiccate. The small triangular leaves are mostly silver with a bright green edge. Zones 4-8
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Lamium galeobdolon 'Hermann's Pride': is more compact than the species. Its serrated leaves are crisply splashed with silver between the veins. In spring, whorls of yellow two-lipped flowers bloom. Zones 4-8
Lamium maculatum 'White Nancy': bears 1-inch triangular silver leaves rimmed in emerald. From spring onward, dense whorls of two-lipped clean white flowers appear at the tips of the stems. Deadhead for prolonged bloom. Zones 4-8.
Note that this flower is patented by "Proven Winners" and cannot be propagated.
Lamium (Dead Nettles)
If you want to cover a shady area in a hurry this is the perennial for you. The Lamium spreads really fast and if left unchecked it will take over the entire wooded area.
About the only thing that stops dead nettle is the sun. It does not do well in sun as it will die back quicky if given too much shade.
This is a great plant to use where you have difficult, dry, shady areas where nothing else will grow. Take for instance beneath large Maple or Oak trees or along side a shady garage - this is a likely location for the dead nettle.
Quite often the wild variety of this cultivar will take off within the Lamium border. Make sure you wear leather gloves to remove these. I made the mistake once and only once by grabbing one with a bare hand. My hand throbbed for hours of pain. So you be careful too. They hide innocently writhing the cultivars.
