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 Lamium Orchid Frost from Bluestone Perennials * |
Lamium Sisters
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Lamium Orchid Frost from Bluestone Perennials * |
Henbit or Henbit Deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaule) and Purple or Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), very sturdy, energetic and persistent (invasive) plants, grow prolifically from seeds or from fragments of the plant stem that get near the soil and put down roots. It can, however, be crowded out by dense, healthy turf.
Henbit, growing happily in most of the United States, is native to Europe, Eastern Asia and Northern Africa. Mike Haddock of Kansas suggests that henbit may have arrived in the US in the 1920 in lawn seed. It is currently found I every state except Alaska. It usually grows in lawns, along the roadside, on waste property, or it may invade cultivated fields and form a beautiful carpet of purple. Henbit is considered a winter annual, and in Virginia it begins blooming in March.
None of the sources consulted for this article gave practical or traditional uses for henbit, except for one. It may be an early source of nectar and pollen for bees. For scientific information about henbit see the Virginia Tech page. http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/lamam.htm
Cultivated Lamium (Lamium malculatum), an evergreen, fast-growing groundcover, is grown for its foliage that is usually variegated. It can spread rapidly in ideal conditions, limiting its use as a boarder plant. The flowers may be yellow, white, pink and various shades of purple.
Lamium, also known as dead nettle, spotted nettle or spotted dead nettle, does best in the shade and prefers moist, well-drained soil, but it is fairly tolerant of dry shade. Blooms generally appear in late spring, but some varieties may begin blooming during the first warm spell in early spring. Plants may die back a bit in the heat of summer, and reemerge in the coolness of autumn.
Cuttings or division of the parent plant are the best means of propagation. Clipping away the old blooms encourages compact growth and continuous blooming. Sources claim that lamium is deer resistant and that it may attract hummingbirds.
For more information about cultivated lamium, see the Ohio State web site at http://hcs.osu.edu/pocketgardener/source/description/la_latum.html. For a list of cultivars popular in the US visit Perry’s Perennials Page, University of Vermont. http://pss.uvm.edu/pss123/perlam.html
Lamium varieties are all part of the Lamiaceae (mint) family and have square stems and opposite leaves. Other popular members of the family include catnip, sage, salvia, hyssop, ajuga, rosemary, stachy, etc. This is the first of several articles comparing the siblings and cousins of the mint clan.
* Photograph of the Lamium Orchid Frost is borrowed with permission from Bluestone Perennials. See more photographs at www.bluestoneperennials.com. Click on “Perennials” and then on “L.”
Pat Lust - Heart of Virginia Master Gardeners
posted 4/13/07
