Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Dry Shade


Growing plants in dry shade can be a problem. 



The Spotted Dead Nettle (Lamium maculatum) thrives In the dry shade of our old French Lilac. I moved the dead nettle two or three years ago.  They are starting to fill in and provide bright leaf and flower color.



Thirty cultivars provide a diverse plant list to choose from.  Among Glories of Snow and Grape Hyacinths (above), 'Purple Dragon' on the left shows a lot of silvery leaf.  'Elizabeth De Haas' to the right has a silver stripe.  The flowers are almost identical.



Lamium 'White Nancy' differs only in flower color.



This yellow-leaved cultivar was a pass-a-long from a friend.  I don’t know its name but it could be ‘Aureum’.  It has yellow leaves with a white stripe.  No flowers yet.



Lamium maculatum is rabbit and deer resistant.  I haven’t noticed any damage from slugs or chewing insects.  They are easy to hoe out if they spread too far.



Simple to maintain and brightly marked, dead nettle is a good plant for the dry shade where not much will grow without constant watering.




Plant Evaluation Notes from Chicago Botanic Gardens here.  

2 comments:

Gardening sheds said...

Beautiful blooms. Nice post. Thank you so much for posting.

Andrew @ Garden Ideas said...

I have always had good results with Geraniums in dry shade.
OK, you need to water them and if you do then hopefully they will reward you with the endless flowers they give.