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Lamium purpureum (deadnettle) - for bumblebees

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  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    JennyJ said:
    I have Lamium galeobdolon.  It spreads by runners that root where they touch down, like strawberries, and gets everywhere if you turn your back on it. It is fairly easy to dig out though, and it's saving grace is that it will grow in dry shade.
    Aha, I've been wondering what to grow under a couple of big Western Red Cedars and a Christmas Tree (previous owners seem to have had a penchant for planting out their Christmas trees). Bone dry, total shade and covered in conifer needles. L. galeobdolon might do the trick! I was also pondering epimediums ...
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    I was going to ask about that one (galeobdolon).
    A friend in Ohio grew it and it appeared (in photos) to make a spreading but relatively tidy clump in her borders. She had clay soil I think and it was woodland garden.
    It was several inches tall in flower, and had pretty silvery markings in between each vein on the leaves, giving it a very shiney appearance?
    Yellow flowers.

    I wonder if it behaved relatively well because of the conditions.
    She loved and it called it her Bumble bee plant, said the whole plants buzzed, it was always covered in bees.

  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    Please refrain from planting Lamium galeobdolon!
    ***** Critical RiskThis species is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales therefore, it is also an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow these species in the wild.


  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    Papi Jo said:
    Please refrain from planting Lamium galeobdolon!
    ***** Critical RiskThis species is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales therefore, it is also an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow these species in the wild.


    Not quite sure what that comma is doing after "therefore", but I guess we get their meaning.

    Slightly scary "banned" list - Virginia creeper, Cotoneaster horizontalis and Montbretia, for example, are on it!

    Well spotted anyway.
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    @DampGardenMan
    We have an Epimedium perralderianum doing reasonably well under the edge of some old Leylandii. There are others you could try but that one is an easy one. The leaves stay nice and green . The new ones are very pretty. Yellow flowers in spring are a bonus. If you are kind to them and start them as well as you can and also try and water and feed them sometimes, it helps them to establish.
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    I'll look out for one! Until they "ban" epimediums of course :smile:
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    That’s the one, it’s good here, and it’s easily dug out if you don’t want it.  It sometimes roots itself into the grass but comes out easily. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Sounds like I’m breaking laws on all plants here then.  What’s more, until someone comes and tells me to dig them up,,,,,they stay. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Papi Jo said:
    Please refrain from planting Lamium galeobdolon!
    ***** Critical RiskThis species is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales therefore, it is also an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow these species in the wild.


    I live in the suburbs so it's unlikely to spread into the wild.  In the 30 years I've had it I've never seen a seedling from it, just runners which are above ground so easy to see and pull off.  It's not even got as far as next door, in all that time.  I'll bear in mind that I should remove it before I get incapable of managing the garden (hopefully another 30 years).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    Lyn said:
    That’s the one, it’s good here, and it’s easily dug out if you don’t want it.  It sometimes roots itself into the grass but comes out easily. 
    Just looking for it and have found its common name is Barrenwort. Not the most attractive of names! But it looks nice.

    I had something similar in my previous garden, but I think that was Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum'.



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