Lamium maculatum
Spotted Dead-nettle
Common names: Spotted Deadnettle, Spotted Lamium
At a glance
- Light
- Partial shade
- Pot size
- from 3 l
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Flowering
- May–Sep
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −30 °C
- Water need
- Medium
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: Tomasz Kuran aka Meteor2017 · CC BY 2.5 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The Spotted Dead-nettle, botanically Lamium maculatum, grows wild along roadsides and in thickets and is a popular groundcover for partial shade in gardens. The plant forms low, mat-like carpets of heart-shaped leaves with toothed margins, often with a silvery central stripe, and usually reaches 15 to 30 cm in height, with the wild form growing up to 50 cm. From May to July, and again into September if cut back after flowering, lip-shaped flowers appear in whorls stacked one above another, pink to purple in the species. The cultivars 'White Nancy', with white flowers, and 'Beacon Silver', with pink flowers, have almost entirely silver leaves with a green edge. Bumblebees readily visit the flowers. Honestly, the dead-nettle is vigorous: it spreads by above-ground and below-ground runners and overgrows weaker neighbours. Plant it where it is free to spread, for example under shrubs, in wall corners, or in hanging baskets.
Care instructions
Place the Spotted Dead-nettle in a partially shaded to shady spot with fresh, humus-rich soil. Silver-leaved cultivars scorch in full sun. Plant in spring or autumn at about 30 cm spacing, and the area will close within the second year. Water regularly during the first few weeks, and later only during long dry spells, since in dry shade the plant otherwise becomes bare. If the plant looks unsightly after the first flowering, cut it back to about a hand's width above the soil; it quickly sends out fresh growth and often flowers a second time. To keep it from spreading everywhere, regularly cut off runners at the edge, ideally in spring. Do not plant it next to delicate, low perennials, which it will overgrow.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
FloweringMay–Sep
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
humus-rich, loamy, well-drained, moist
The spotted dead-nettle grows best on fresh, humus-rich soil, but copes with almost any normal garden soil, whether slightly acidic, neutral or chalky. Partial shade and even moisture are what it likes best. On very dry soil in shade it becomes bare and unsightly, and winter wet on heavy, compacted soil harms it. Loosen such soils with sand and leaf compost.
Feeding
Light feeder
The spotted dead-nettle is so vigorous that it needs no feeding in the bed. Too many nutrients only make it spread even more readily. In a pot or hanging basket, you give liquid fertiliser for flowering plants about every four weeks during the growing season, and let feeding taper off in late summer. After a hard cutting back, a thin layer of compost helps with new growth.
Overwintering
The spotted dead-nettle is hardy and in mild winters stays partly green. It needs no protection, but a loose covering of leaves does no harm. After hard frost the shoots often look tousled; in spring you cut them back. What matters is that no water stands in winter. In a pot or hanging basket, in November you place the pot against a sheltered house wall or close to the ground under a roof overhang, so that the root ball does not freeze through.
Propagation
Methods
- Division
- Cuttings
You propagate the spotted dead-nettle effortlessly by division. In spring or autumn, cut rooted pieces together with runners from the edge of the mat and plant them in the new spot, watering in well. From May to July you can also insert shoot tips about 8 to 10 cm long as cuttings in pots with seed compost and keep them evenly moist; they root within a few weeks. Varieties such as ‘White Nancy’ you propagate only in these ways; from seed they do not come true to variety. The species also self-seeds.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
nightshade family (Solanaceae)
particularly well establishedYou will find that basil next to tomato and pepper improves taste and keeps whiteflies and aphids away.
For example PotatoTomatoSweet pepperCocktail tomatoEggplantCape gooseberry and 14 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
You will notice that the intense scent of basil, thyme, and others confuses the cabbage whitefly and keeps it away from the cabbage family.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: bio-gardening intercropping practice
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Spotted Dead-nettle yourself
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