Red dead-nettle

How to recognise it

Habit

Small annual of 10–25 cm, often branched at the base, with ascending stems.

Leaf

Opposite, heart-shaped to triangular, 1–5 cm, scalloped and softly hairy; the top leaves are crowded together and tinged purple.

Flower

Pinkish-purple two-lipped flowers of 1–1.5 cm with a hooded upper lip, in whorls among the upper leaves.

Stem

Square, often purplish red and slightly hairy.

Fruit/Seed

Four small nutlets per flower, with a nutritious appendage for ants.

Confusion with

Ground-ivy creeps, has round, aromatic leaves and blue-violet flowers. Henbit dead-nettle has upper leaves that clasp the stem and long, narrow flower tubes. White dead-nettle is larger, perennial and white-flowered.

Flowering: March–October

Why grow it?

• One of the first flowers of the year: bumblebee queens, hairy-footed flower bees and other early bees collect nectar and pollen from it.
• Flowers for months, from March into autumn, and in mild winters sometimes in December and January too.
• Covers bare soil in the vegetable garden in winter and spring, so the soil does not wash away.
• Its seeds are spread by ants, which eat the nutritious appendage.
• A free, easy wild flower for the vegetable path, the border or a patch of waste ground.

Red dead-nettle: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: fields, vegetable gardens, borders, path edges, waste ground, farmyards and the foot of walls.
• Sun to partial shade, on open, loose soil that is regularly worked.
• Moist, fertile soil; loam and clay are ideal, but it grows in almost any garden soil.
• It needs bare soil to germinate: in dense turf it disappears.

Goes well with

• Lesser celandine: Yellow stars in March: together an early feast for the first bees.
• Wood forget-me-not: Sky-blue flowers in April–May that self-seed just as easily.
• Common poppy: Red flowers in June on the same open, loose soil.
• Daisy: Small white flowers in the lawn next to the border, also flowering very early.

Red dead-nettle: when and how to plant it?

1. Usually you need do nothing: it appears by itself on bare soil in the vegetable plot and border. If you want to sow it deliberately, buy seed from a native plant nursery. Never dig plants up from the wild.
2. Sow in September–October on loose, bare soil: the seedlings overwinter as small plants and flower early in spring.
3. You can also sow in March–April; it then flowers from late spring.
4. Sow thinly, rake in lightly and keep the soil moist until it germinates.
5. After that, let a few plants set seed every year and it will keep coming back.

Care

Water

Not needed: it grows mainly in the wet months of the year.

Feeding

Not needed.

Letting it seed

Let some plants finish flowering and set seed so there are new ones next year.

Weeding

Too many? Pull or hoe out the surplus seedlings; they have only a small root.

Vegetable garden

Leave it as ground cover over winter and remove it only when you sow or plant your vegetables.

Tip: Do not weed everything out in March: leave a few patches of red dead-nettle in the vegetable plot and border until after flowering, so the first bumblebees have something to eat.

Pruning and mowing

When: Not needed: it is an annual. Remove surplus plants whenever it suits you.

How:

• No pruning or cutting back is needed.
• Only pull up faded plants once they have set seed, so new ones come next year.
• In the vegetable plot, leave the plants until you need the ground; then hoe them in or put them on the compost heap.

Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

It multiplies by itself from seed. Sow it yourself in September–October or March–April on bare soil.

Self-seeding

Leave a few plants until the seed is ripe; ants carry it further.

Red dead-nettle: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −20 °C.

• Autumn seedlings overwinter as small green plants.
• In mild winters it sometimes keeps flowering, a welcome nectar source for bumblebees flying on mild days.
• Copes well with ordinary Belgian winters; in hard frost some plants die, but the seed in the soil survives.
• A green carpet of red dead-nettle protects bare soil from washing away.

Diseases and pests

• Too many in the vegetable plot: On loose, rich soil it can form a carpet. Hoe or pull out what you do not want, preferably before it sets seed.
• Powdery mildew: White powder on the leaves in dry weather. Harmless for an annual.
• Aphids: Sometimes aphids on the tips. Ladybirds and hoverfly larvae usually deal with them.
• It disappears: Not coming back? It needs bare soil: leave a patch uncovered or lightly scratch the soil in autumn.

Through the year

• January: In mild winters the first small flowers.
• March: Full flower. Bumblebee queens and flower bees visit.
• April: Flowering. There is still time to sow on bare soil.
• May: First seed. Ants carry the seeds away.
• June: Remove surplus plants once they have set seed.
• September: Sow on loose soil. New seedlings appear.
• October: Sow. Late flowers.
• November: Young plants overwinter as a green carpet.
• December: Rest; in mild winters a few small flowers.

Did you know?

• Red dead-nettle often germinates in autumn, overwinters as a small plant and then flowers and sets seed in spring: a so-called winter annual.
• The species name purpureum refers to the purple colour of the upper leaves and the flowers.
• Despite its name it is not related to stinging nettles: dead-nettles belong to the mint family, like mint and thyme.