Purple-leafed flower-looking weeds provide early spring food for honeybees

This week, I’ve had a few people ask me about a plant suddenly popping up in their gardens. They described it as a purple flowerlike plant that came on quickly. The plant they are talking about is purple deadnettle.

The reason deadnettle shows up so quickly is because it is a winter annual plant. Winter annuals germinate and begin growing in the fall. That autumn growth then goes dormant during winter. When spring rolls around, the dormant plants begin growing very quickly because of the head start they had the previous fall.

Winter annuals most often show up in gardens where the soil has been tilled or disturbed in some way. For example, beds that have been prepared for spring flowering bulbs like tulips, can be susceptible to winter annual weeds.

While they are weeds and can form large populations of plants, deadnettle really doesn't do much harm. Much of the time when they show up, it’s so early in the season that the garden is not ready for planting anyway. Then later, closer to planting time, they will be easily tilled under and eliminated before planting.

Out in the country this time of year, you can sometimes see farm fields with wide swaths of purple deadnettle giving an impressive purple cast to the field.

If left alone, deadnettle will set seeds as summer approaches then eventually fade away on its own accord and will be gone the remainder of the growing season.

Deadnettle is believed by many gardeners to have a positive effect on potato plants. It is supposed to enhance growth, improve flavor and repel potato beetles all without taking nutrients away from the potatoes. Since they are short plants, around 6 to 8 inches tall, they don’t compete for sunlight either. They actually thrive in the shade of taller potato plants.

In our area, however, the deadnettle population usually dies back before most potato crops reach the stage where they could be helped by its enhancing properties.

Purple deadnettle flowers are an important source of early spring nectar and pollen for honeybees and other pollinators at a time when there are very few other plants blooming.

If you can live with purple deadnettle in your garden for a few weeks, you will be helping our friendly pollinating insects when they need all the food they can find.