Red Deadnettle Seeds (Lamium purpureum)

Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is a low, spreading plant that grows just 7 to 30cm tall, with square stems and soft, heart-shaped, toothed leaves that take on a purple-red tint towards the top of the plant. From March through to October it carries small whorls of pink-purple, hooded flowers in the leaf axils. It is familiar on grassland edges, hedgerows and verges.

Its great value is timing: it is among the first flowers open in early spring, feeding queen bumblebees as they emerge, and it goes on flowering for months. Bees, hoverflies and butterflies all visit it. Although sometimes listed as a perennial, Red Deadnettle usually behaves as an annual, completing its life in one season and persisting by reseeding into open soil.

It grows on well-drained soil in full sun and is at home on disturbed, open ground such as the edge of a bed, a cultivated strip, an allotment margin or a bare patch in a verge. It will fade from a closed, undisturbed sward, so it is not a long-term meadow species. It works best where the ground is turned or scarified each year.

Sow in autumn or spring onto bare, cultivated ground, surface-sown and firmed in without covering; autumn sowings give the earliest flowers. Plants grow quickly and flower within weeks in mild weather. Let it set seed, then cultivate or rake over the area again in autumn to encourage the next generation. Combine with our 100% wildflower mixes or single species that share the same open, sunny conditions.