Dead nettle, Weasel’s snout
These are hardy groundcover foliage plants whose use in the garden is to cover and infill open areas in the herbaceous border. Lamium can be quite invasive and readily naturalise themselves into shady corners of the woodland garden. Lamium galeobdolon is a European native plant anyway and readily crosses up with more ornamental varieties.
L. maculatum ‘Beacon Silver’ has silvery leaves which are narrowly margined green and has pale pink flowers in summer. This plant grows to around 6-8in in height with a spread of 3ft or so in time. The flowers appear in whorls on an erect spike. This is a rhizomatous perennial with prostrate and upright stems.
In the border this Lamium needs to be sited fairly well away from other smaller growing and less vigorous plants to avoid them being engulfed. However the silvery foliage can make an excellent backdrop against taller growing plants with white flower or interspersed with ornamental grasses of different colours.
