Deadnettle has an unappealing name, but under the right circumstances
it makes a very good groundcover. I've lost the name of the cultivar
pictured, but I'm impressed with its blooming ability. I've shoveled
snow off it in February and found it in bloom and I know it continues on
well past the first frosts of autumn. Several years ago I planted
three four-inch pots of this variety of Lamium maculatum in the
bed along the south property border. It eventually filled the entire
bed which is forty-five feet wide. In other words, be prepared for
it to spread! It's best used under trees and shrubs and away from
smaller plants which it can smother pretty quickly. Where it has
infiltrated a planting of phlox and goldenrod, it has reached heights of
over a foot. A mint relative with the characteristic square stems, it crawls
along the ground and roots wherever the stems touch. It also spreads
by seed, but the seedlings don't necessarily look like the parent plant.
For example, the striped cultivar shown here produced many plants that
had solid green leaves. The variety 'White Nancy' is very popular
and I grow that in the tree lawn between the city sidewalk and the street.
It has white flowers and very pale, gray/green leaves edged in darker green.
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