General Culture:

Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, humusy soils with good drainage, but tolerates moderately dry ones. Best dark leaf color usually occurs in sunny locations. Provide good air circulation in hot and humid areas where crown rot is a problem. Divide when clumps become overcrowded. This is a fast-growing plant that will spread by stolons to form an attractive ground cover. Larger plantings may be mowed on a high mower setting to remove spent flower spikes and to tidy the appearance of the planting. String trimmers and hedge shears are also effective for removing spent flower spikes. Space plants 6-9” apart for quick cover. This is a patented plant that will not reproduce by seed.

Noteworthy Characteristics:

BLACK SCALLOP is a stoloniferous, mat-forming, bugleweed cultivar that is noted for its (1) dark maroon-purple leaves with scalloped margins, (2) fragrant dark violet flowers and (3) compact but spreading habit. Leaves are varyingly described as dark maroon-purple to near black, which gets the point across that these leaves are in fact very dark in color. Leaves appear in spreading rosettes that form a 3-4” tall foliage carpet that may spread over time to 36” wide. Tiny, two-lipped, dark violet flowers (typical mint family) appear in spring in flower spikes that rise above the foliage. BLACK SCALLOP was first observed in 1998 as a natural mutation that occurred in an in vitro nursery laboratory planting of Ajuga reptans ‘Braunherz’ (see I530 herein). It was subsequently isolated, developed and introduced into commerce. U. S. Plant Patent PP15,815 was issued on June 28, 2005.