Lamium ‘Purple Dragon’
* Common name: Lamium ‘Purple Dragon’
Lamium ‘Purple Dragon’ has variegated foliage and magenta-purple flowers.
* Botanical name: Lamium maculatum ‘Purple Dragon’
* What it is: A shade-preferring, flowering groundcover that has showy silver leaves with green edges and magenta-purple flowers in spring. Blooms sporadically through the summer and has foliage that holds through most winters. Spreads but is not overly aggressive.
* Size: Grows six inches tall. Space two feet apart.
* Where to use: Makes a nice shady groundcover under trees with its dense, spreading habit, its light-colored leaves, and its ability to compete with tree roots in dry shade. Can also be used as a groundcover in any shady garden, such as edging a woodland path or under shrubs in a northern or eastern foundation bed.
* Care: Keep damp the first season, then water usually not needed except in prolonged drought. Avoid hot, sunny areas to prevent leaves from scorching. Main care is containing spread. Use a shovel each spring to dig and remove sections creeping beyond the assigned space.
Fertilizer usually not needed. Foliage is evergreen most winters, but cut back to a few inches at the end of each winter (or whenever leaves are looking tired or ratty).
* Great partner: Use under cherry, dogwood, or redbud trees or under limbed-up blue- or green-leafed evergreens (i.e. spruce, cedar, holly, or juniper). Hydrangeas and azaleas are good flowering-shrub partners.