I sought after lamiums after I read about them in Marianne Binetti's books as slug resistant easy care plants to let roam under shrubs and trees. She suggested to dig out clumps to put in hanging baskets or deck containers in part shade as fillers. There is a big difference between yellow flowering ones & the pink/white ones. I've been happy with them, but have noticed they have different levels of vigorous. My current favorite is Aurea for it's golden foliage plus bright orchid blooms that attracts the hummingbirds in a hanging basket near our hot tub. It grows nicely outward down & up again in baskets. My least vigorous is a white leaved purple pink flower, perhaps Red Nancy. It brightens up shady corners, but isn't liking container growing. I put some of it in the ground as well and is a slow grower as compared to white stripe green leaved bright pink flowered one, Chequers. I favor 4-5' sweeps of them as 18" wide edgings in shady beds. In early spring I cut back any scraggly stems to make it tidy. Then I cut back again quite hard after flowering for good foliage all summer. These cuttings can easily be rooted for more plants to give away. I've only purchased one lamium Aurea as the others were from plant swaps often in a plastic bag as bareroot clumps. They appeared almost dead, but water perks them right up especially after getting back into soil. The best part is they're so easy care because they flower in the shade without fertilizer, water, or slug bait protection. I've tried some in sunnier beds and as long as kept moist or in part shade or away from heat reflecting pots, rocks, or garden ornaments they do better. Also, they don't need any fertilizer to bloom well. The 2nd year in the ground growth is amazing! I wouldn't hesitate to plant them.

Thanks for the info. About 30 years ago, this variety became very popular as a hanging basket plant. It was easy and fast and looked harmless. I had a plant shop around Christmas, and I had one basket left over at the end of the season. Without even thinking, I pulled the plant out of the basket and threw it into the woods. I didn't think it would survive the winter on top of the ground, so I was surprised the next summer to see it sending out new growth. I left it alone since it was in an area where it couldn't do any real harm. The area was overgrown with poison ivy and every other undesirable plant, so I didn't care. The lamium has destroyed nearly all the native undesirables and totally taken over with no work on my part. I can't find any trace of poison ivy that has not been smothered out. Even the mugwart is nearly all gone. I only wish the yellow flowers would last longer. If I had it to do over again, I'd plant sarcococa. IMO, that's the best ground cover plant in existence. It spreads very slowly for the first few years, but it gets extremely thick as the clumps grow together. The flowers are almost totally inconspicuous, but they are very fragrant in very early spring. The foliage is very dark green and very drought tolerant. Some winter-burn might occur from a dry, severely cold winter with insufficient snow cover, but it covers over as soon as the new growth comes out. It's very hard to find and usually very expensive... unless you know someone who will give you a few pieces. It grows just like pachysandra with underground runners. If I were more ambitious, I'd plant them side-by-side to see which plant wins a survival contest. I'd hope it was the sarcococa.

Actually it didn't go underfoot Bill, unbeknown to me Hubby collected it and popped it into a glass jar and screwed the lid on tight it was needed for ID purposes you see, and promptly forgot about it.. Karma I reckon.. Beautiful one day perfect the next Bill, yes we did get some very welcome rain 44mm in our back yard gauge. I seen a article on line about a Cane Toad swallowing a Keelback snake that is a known predator of the Cane Toad, scary thought if those Cane Toad got to the size of a Python they would be going around swallowing us humans next. Well that's nice to know that you had a look at my Journal Bill yes there are a few pics on there I try to add our Australia Natives as they flower, but I do put the roses and tropicals on for a bit of fun.. I used to put my flower photo's on the Garden Gallery here also but members went and no one replied to my posts so I stopped doing that too. I only had one DA Mary Rose then late June I bought and planted another three..Pop over to the Roses Forum here and I will start a new post about them as one of them has buds and they should open in the next week, we may even get some of the old members to join in Tricia tried in July with no luck shame I missed her post.. Don't think we can do a thing about those ads mores the pity..

I just bought one this weekend from a large U.S. store called Wal-Mart. They had about 50 for sale, so it is really being propagated heavily here in the states. It is very beautiful and will try it in all shade. I'm here in Houston, Texas so we get very hot weather all summer. I'll see how it holds up. It looks very easy to propagate with roots sprouting at any point where the stems touch the soil. David :-)