PlantFiles: Spotted Dead Nettle
Lamium maculatum 'Beacon Silver'

I purchased a small package of this plant at a nursery, and planted it on the north mostly shaded side in the border against the house. It thrived there and spread so I moved pieces to the front west side of the house where it gets a half day of sun. It flourishes there too. It is always beautifully colored, with robust light lavender blooms and very healthy. I like the way it softens the borders and spills over the rock borders. I never water it or do anything but pinch it back or give pieces [with roots] to friends. It's a wonderful path/walkway edge plant and reflects light somewhat with the night yard lights on. Love this plant.

I love this plant. It has thrived beautifully in a full sun contained area as an underplanting to a sapling red japanese maple.

It has survived driveway salt (plant friendly), full sun during hot summers and cold Wisconsin winters, and clayish soil. I neglected to water much last year, and it stll thrived.

I have it contained in an area surrounded by driveway and walkway, and it cascades over the surrounding rock border. I do not fertilize.

The first year it was a little slow to take off understandably, the second year it spread and filled in generously, lush and beautiful, flowering non-stop from spring to frost. I get a lot of compliments on this plant.

I do find volunteers popping up in other areas of my yard, easy enough to remove. Just beautiful.

This year, I'm also sampling Lamium 'Golden Anniversary'. So far so good...nice pastel pink blooms against the yellow foliage.

"Recently BOTH plants have suddenly changed bloom colors to white. There is still some pink flowering but mostly white now...amazing."

Perhaps these are seedlings that have reverted. This is one of my favorites and I've been propagating it by seed, but I wonder if that's a good idea. Variations in flower color don't bother me, but I don't want to lose that beautiful silver foliage! Does anybody know if this breeds true?

I put this in a west-facing flower bed. I don't think it appreciated the long, cold spring we had this year, since it was small and withered-looking until it finally warmed up. It appears to have revived with warmer weather recently.

I would advise against watering it with a sprinkler. The soil splashes up onto the leaves, and making it look dirty and obscuring the nice silvery colour.

2008 update: My Beacon Silver is starting it's fifth year and it is currently bullying a dwarf holly bush, a dwarf azalea, and my hosta - growing up, around and through them. The plants started a little slow the first couple of years, but since its third year, it has really filled into the bed, to the exact effect I wanted, plus some! I would call this plant an enthusiastic spreader, but still manageable.

It dies back a bit during the winter, but requires little encouragement to spring back to life as a lush thick groundcover. The extremely wet May this year has really stimulated a lot of new spreading. Now I just need to curb its enthusiasm a little. Or a lot. :) My patch is in a semi-moist, part shade bed at the bottom of a slope. I'm going to try to transplant some to other areas of my yard with different conditions, and see how it does.

This is a great little perennial for a shady spot. It spreads some and has lovely pink flower heads. It really brightens up the shade and fills in under other shade plants.

I am relatively new to gardening, and this is one of the first plants I planted. I put it in front of hosta plants on "my side" of my neighbor's 6' privacy fence. (Now I have a nice part-shade border bed!) This plant is spreading very fast, and looks nice in front of the hostas. I have this variety, and also used "Orchid Frost" with the pinkish/lavender blooms. Love them both!

I am growing this plant in Fullerton, California (Southern California). I originally planted it under an avocado tree and it did really well. Because the avocado tree got so large and it was encroaching on the power cable I had to have the tree cut down. I thought for sure the Lamium Beacon Silver plant would die with no shade in our area. But it did really well even under the sun. With time I planted other taller plants around it for more shade. Three years later, the plant is thriving under some Oriental lilies and some native western columbines.

A very pretty plant, but don't put it where it can encroach on others: can be very invasive, but is easily removed.

I planted this in a woody shady area on a hill. Within a month of planting this it tripled in size. We had a very warm summer last year. Now in early spring, after a very cold snowy winter here in MA it has already started to regrow beautifully. I intend to buy some more to fill in a very difficult grow area.

Excellent groundcover - flowers off and on from spring to fall. It can be planted under trees, too.

Having an interesting experience with this plant. I have two plants. They have been flowering reliably in purplish pink for a good part of the summer. Recently BOTH plants have suddenly changed bloom colors to white. There is still some pink flowering but mostly white now...amazing. It makes me wonder if the original strain was white.

Wonderful edging plant that looks great with lime colored Creeping Jenny/Moneywort & darker foliage plants such as Heuchera/Coral Bells. Grows sun or shade & simply requires some pinching from time-to-time to keep it tidy, dead-heading also. Grows as well in containers as it does in-ground. Flowers in white, rose or mauve & over-winters well in my Southern Ontario zone 6a/b garden.

Stunning combined with bamboo and ornamental grasses!

Needs even moisture to look its best, but it is one of my favorites for shade. Silver foliage and deep pink blooms really stand out. Makes a good groundcover.

Silver foliage with thin green markings