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Growing Yarrow
How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Yarrow Plants
How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Yarrow Plants
Yarrow can come in a bright yellow variety, but it can also be red or pink.
CrestockYarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a native North American plant that’s popular with pollinators and practically care-free, making it perfect for borders, ground covers, and open meadows. Here’s how to grow yarrow in your garden!
Sold as a hardy and versatile perennial, yarrow has showy flower heads composed of many tiny, tightly-packed flowers rising above clusters of ferny foliage. The flowers may be yellow, red, pink, or any shade in between.
Yarrow is pest-resistant, drought-resistant, attracts butterflies, and is excellent for cutting and drying.
The plant is also an aromatic herb which has many healing properties!
Note: Despite yarrow’s many beneficial characteristics, it can also be an invasive grower that readily pushes out its neighbors. Plant responsibly!
Planting
When to Plant Yarrow
- Plant in the spring or early summer after the danger of frost has passed. See local frost dates.
- If you plant yarrow from tip cuttings, plant them in spring or early summer.
Choosing a Preparing a Planting Site
- Plant in an area that receives full sun to encourage compact growth and many flowers. In partial sun, yarrow will grow leggy.
- Yarrow performs best in well-drained soil. It thrives in hot, dry conditions; it will not tolerate soil that’s constantly wet.
- Use a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil in your garden to about 12 to 15 inches deep, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost.
- If you grow yarrow in too-rich soil, the plants may require staking due to overenthusiastic growth. To keep it from growing too tall, choose a site with average to poor soil and supplement it with a bit of compost to give the plants a good start.
How to Plant Yarrow
- Space the plants 1 to 2 feet apart.
- They are quick to establish and spread, though some species, like Achillea millefolium, are extra-aggressive growers, so be careful when choosing your plants. Most kinds grow to be about 2 to 4 feet tall.
Care
How to Grow Yarrow
- Add a thin layer of compost around your plants each spring to keep them fed.
- Yarrow is very drought tolerant, but if you receive less than 1 inch of rain a week in the summer, remember to water your plants to keep them looking their best.
- Cut off (“deadhead”) flowers when they start to fade in mid-summer; this encourages most varieties to produce another round of flowers.
- Divide yarrow plants every 3 to 5 years to sustain vigorous, healthy plants. Lift the clumps in early spring or fall and remove any dead stems from the center of the clump. You can replant the divisions elsewhere in the garden or share with a friend!
Pests/Diseases
Yarrow is generally disease-free and easy to keep, though it is susceptible to the following:
- Aphids
- Powdery mildew
- Rust
- Stem rot
Recommended Varieties
- ‘Coronation Gold’, for its beautiful mustard-yellow flowers and silvery gray leaves.
- ‘Fanal’ (or ‘The Beacon’), for its rich red flowers with yellow centers.
- ‘Cerise Queen’, to add some bright pink color to your garden.
Wit & Wisdom
- Some Native Americans used ground yarrow infused in water as a wash to treat sunburns. It is also sometimes used as a remedy for anxiety and stress.
- Yarrow is thought to symbolize everlasting love. Find out more flower meanings here.
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Reader Comments
Leave a Comment
Foraging Yarrow for tea; medicinal oil
After collecting yarrow from wild- do you wash it prior to drying for tea or adding to oil/water for medicinal, bath/beauty products? I am new to collecting and all instructions say to collect after dew is dry but my yarrow is dusty.
Yarrow
If you are harvesting fresh yarrow leaves and they have any moisture on them, you have to let them dry out before using. So, if your yarrow is dusty, you can certainly wash it lightly, but then it needs to dry out. The dried aromatic leaves can be used to make a tea but we would add mint or it can be quite a bitter tea, often used as a cold remedy.
I have some paprika yarrow
I have some paprika yarrow that a racoon dug up. I replanted them and staked them for added support. My plan is to deadhead them. I have new growth forming around the crown. I was wondering if I can cut back the stalks that were damaged by the racoon, which happens to be where I need to deadhead.
Pruning Yarrow
I would advise cutting back any damaged, broken, or dead stems and letting the new growth take over. Try to cut back to just above a leaf. This will help to encourage the plants to branch out and potentially produce more flowers.
yarrow
how much water does a yarrow need to grow plus shade and sun
Yarrow
I am planning to move to Palm Springs and want to grow Yarrow, one of my favourite plants. I am concerned about it surviving in the desert heat and possibly in full sun.
yarrow in heat
See above: Yarrow thrives in heat. Safe travels!
Yarrow Achillea
When the yellow part turns brown, are you suppose to cut them off?
Deadheading Yarrow
When the flowers begin to fade, you can cut them off (a.k.a. “deadhead”) to encourage the plant to bloom again. Depending on your climate and the length of your growing season, the yarrow may put out more flowers this season. Alternatively, you can leave the fading flowers on the plants to give your garden some texture in the winter months. Note that yarrow will not hesitate to spread if you allow it to go to seed, however! So if you prefer to keep your yarrow contained, then you should remove the flowers once they start to fade.
How do you kill Yarrow?
It takes over choking other plants out! I have pulled it out. I have dug it up. And within week or two its back!!!! It must be related to Bermuda grass!!
puling out yarrow
You must have left some of the rizomes (sp).. That's how the multipy.
Yarrow
How much sun does Yarrow need? I have no more than 2 hours of sun in any part of my yard.
yarrow
Yarrow really does best in full sun in a site where it’s not too windy. At minimum, it must be started in full sun. In shade, it will grow, but it becomes tall and floppy, and doesn’t bloom much. You often have to stake.
Yarrow planting
How well does yarrow do in a pot and how big should the container be?
growing yarrow in a container
Yarrow thrives in hot, dry conditions with low soil fertility–sometimes container conditions are a bit too rich for its liking.
indoors to outdoors
Hey there, I planted my yarrow too soon indoors and would like to move it outdoors, but the last frost is end of May. Will they die? I'm concerned my soil indoors is too shallow to sustain them much longer. Thanks.
Transplanting Yarrow
If they’re in small seed-starting pods, you could carefully transplant them to larger peat pots for the rest of the indoor period. Alternatively, and depending on the weather, you could start hardening them off outdoors during the next two weeks, then plant them in the ground, keeping a close eye on the weather forecast. Keep them covered at night until the danger of a hard frost has passed; they can survive a light frost if they’re sufficiently hardened off. Here’s some more info about hardening off seedlings.
Yarrow Plants in Housing Subdivision
We recently moved into a new housing subdivision in Davis, California where Yarrow plants have been used throughout the landscaping. The plants looked nice for a month or two, turned brown, and have been that way since Easter. Is this normal?
yarrow turned brown
Do you see any bugs or holes in the leaves? If not, some varieties of yarrow hold their color better than others. After bloom, the yarrow will turn brown. You can try cutting them down to see if you’ll get a new round of flowers.
yarrow
Can you use dried seed head of yarrow to feed birds
wild
Yarrow, at least I think its yarrow, grows wild in North CA. It has white flowers.
Summer Pastel Yarrows "Achillea millefolium"
Summer Pastel Yarrows "Achillea Millefolium" blooming time? I live in Alabama (zone 7b) and just this year finally learned the name of this flower that I have loved for years!! I went out and found a nursery that could get it from a local grower and I purchased it. I got an entire tray of them and planted an entire bed of summer pastel yarrows with day lilies (that were already established in that bed and I had ready in a bed planner that said the two went well with each other. It's in full sun, well drained soil, the yarrows are being used as the boarding plants in this bed. The fern like foliage is beautiful and very healthy the only issue is I HAVE NO BLOOMS AT ALL AND ITS JULY 28th. So when so I expect to see blooms? The day lilies are on there 3rd blooming cycle (this has never happened, we are having an an extended blooming cycle because weather is favorable) and I can't even get the summer pastel yarrows "Achillea millefolium" to bloom at all?!
Yarrow Not Blooming
Hi Dusty,
It sounds like the cultural conditions are ideal for your plants, so I wonder if the nursery staff cut the plants back a bit before you bought them. That is a common practice in nurseries and greenhouses–it keeps plants from getting rangy. That could have delayed bloom time, but since they sound nice and healthy, my guess is you will see blooms in two or three weeks that should–with a little deadheading–last through the fall. Fingers crossed!
Still no blooms on my Yarrows!!
I still have no blooms on my yarrors- I've ask the nursery and they did not top them prior to me buying them. We have monitored the amount of water they have received more closely and cut back watering them greatly. The fern part is thriving! Daylillies are rebloom here in Alabam after the initial plant bloomed and its fans foliage died and grew back! Because we have had so much rain and the temperature has been elevated for several weeks! HELP I'm At A COMPLETE LOSS, wish I could submit a picture for review??? Forgive any typos when entering text in the comment box an ad was stuck over it so I am typing blindly :/
Need Help Please respond:)!
I left an update on my Summer Pastal Yarrows and really could use some advice. I'd love to send in a picture of the fern foliage- seeing how I've never grown/planted Yarrows before maybe there is a trick I do not know... I have 10 plants in a bed all by themselves right in front of my porch with absolutely no flowers:(
Yarrow
My Yarrow did not bloom until the second year in the ground.
Yarrow not blooming
Is it possible that your soil is too good? Yarrow likes well drained average to poor soil.
Transplanting in July
My garden club is planting a town garden next week. I know July is a terrible time but most plants are from nurseries and small. My yarrow is a couple feet tall. We hate to cut it back before planting and have to wait until next year for blooms, but if we water well, daily if necessary, and stake it, will it be ok? Thanks for any help!
It is not an ideal time to
It is not an ideal time to transplant yarrow, but you can try. And remember that yarrow does not like wet soil, so resist the urge to overwater after planting in the new garden. Some plants take longer to adapt to new locations, so keep an eye on it. Give it at least a few weeks to get acclimated. If flower stalks start to die back, cut those off at the base.
July transplanting
Thanks for your advice. I think we will go for it and see how it does.
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