bit makes it very useful in containers as it won’t overtake anything else you plant in the container.
- Orchid Frost – You’ll get greenish-blue leaves with a silver midvein, and the flowers are a pretty orchid-pink. Supposedly, it’s more resistant to foliar diseases and vigorous than other cultivars.
- Purple and Pink Chablis – These plants have greenish-silver leaves with a dark green edging and light pink or lavender-purple flowers.
- Purple Dragon – This plant offers bigger purple-pink flowers than most types of dead nettles you can buy, and it has smaller silver leaves with a wide green edge.
- Red Nancy – The deep pinkish-purple flowers sit way above the foliage with this dead nettle, and it offers silver leaves with thin green margins and reddish stems. It’s one of the best performers in terms of flowering and longevity.
- Shell Pink – As the name suggests, this plant has clear pink blossoms. The Chicago Botanical Garden named this cultivar one of the best performers with green leaves and silver striping foliage. It was the only plant in the dead nettle category to secure a five star rating.
- White Nancy – As the name suggests, this dead nettle has silvery white leaves with thin green margins and white flowers. The foliage will scorch if you plant it in full sun, and it’s not as invasive as other cultivars.
There are several dead nettle cultivars available, and some are much more aggressive than others if you don’t take the time to prune them back.
How to Grow Dead Nettle
Dead nettle stays relatively short, and most cultivars top out at below a foot tall at full maturity. However, the pretty variegated foliage will easily spread out two or three times the plant’s height. Spotted dead nettles are usually grown for the silvery leaves over the flowers, but the flowers can be stunning too. Some leaves will turn back to an all-green coloring, and you want to prune these leaves out so the green color doesn’t take over the variegated plant.
Having a tendency to spread and being a creeper, dead nettles are classic cottage garden plants and flowering ground covers. They are very valuable to fill in shady spots, and this is a condition many plants can’t thrive in. The silvery coloring on the foliage makes them a good fit for any landscape design that incorporates a creative color scheme. If you’re after companion plants for it, go for other shade-loving plants. Depending on the landscaping needs, the following could work well:
- Barrenwort (Epimedium)
- Hosta species
- Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis)
Where they touch the soil, the roots on the stems allow dead nettle to spread. Eventually, they’ll form a thick mat, and some plants will naturalize to certain areas. This is fantastic if you need to cover a bare spot with a ground cover, but it’s not great if you’re trying to grow them in a more crowded area where you need a well-behaved plant. So, you need to be very careful about where you plant it and how much time you have to devote to pruning and maintaining it.
Choosing a Location
Dead nettle will tolerate some sunlight, but it does best when you plant it in full to partial shade. In full sun in hot climates, the leaves wither and become scorched and brown. You’ll need an area that drains well for the soil, and the soil should be more on the acidic side to keep the plant happy.
You want to space your plants a foot apart. Even though they seem small, these plants will quickly spread. In mild climates and in moist soil, it can quickly become invasive. You should cut it back in the summer if it is trying to take over your garden. Another option you have is to remove some of the plants every few years. When you take the time to control dead nettle in this manner, it’s a beloved, well-behaved member of your garden.
During the spring months, sprinkle fertilizer on the soil around your dead nettle clumps and allow the rain to help it soak in. Don’t allow the fertilizer to touch the foliage or stems. During the middle of summer, you can dilute a liquid fertilizer on all of the foliage to give the plant a boost. You don’t wan