Yarrow can come in a bright yellow variety, but it can also be red or pink.
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Planting, Growing, and Caring for Yarrow Plants
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a native North American plant that is popular with pollinators and practically carefree, making it perfect for borders, ground covers, and open meadows. Here’s how to grow yarrow flowers in your garden!
About Yarrow
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 that has many healing properties! See this wonderful article, Yarrow and Its Medicinal Uses.
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 or shade, yarrow tends to grow leggy.
- Yarrow performs best in well-drained soil. It thrives in hot, dry conditions; it will not tolerate constantly wet soil. Loamy soil is recommended, but yarrow can also be grown in clay soil as long as it does not always stay saturated with water.
- 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 soil that is too rich, 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 some 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.
Growing
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!
Catherine Boeckmann
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Is it possible that your soil is too good? Yarrow likes well drained average to poor soil.
My Yarrow did not bloom until the second year in the ground.
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 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.
Thanks for your advice. I think we will go for it and see how it does.
Bought 4 plants at Home Depot - all looked good! Planted and watered 3 same day. Did not water 4th plant - next afternoon all it's leaves and stems looked 'dried/wilted' - (a few bending) w/good flower heads. Planted and watered hoping w/perk up overnight - it did not. If I prune stems down to 3" w/plant revive and make new leaves or more blooms this summer?
Hi Virginia,
Hold off on cutting it back. It may perk back up yet. It could be experiencing transplant shock; cutting it would be adding salt to the wound. Some plants take longer to adapt to new conditions. Give it a few weeks to get acclimated. If flower stalks start to die back, cut those off at the base.
I had a couple of Yarrow plants in with a Huchera in a GIANT styrofoam kind of deck pot, and they didn't come back this year (The Huchera came back two springs, but it, too failed). I live in zone 5b and we had a relatively mild winter.
Hi Kate,
First, it is not all that surprising that your heuchera petered out; they are apt to do that unless extremely happy with the growing conditions (they typically thrive in a woodland setting with lots of dappled light). In fact, many of today’s popular cultivars behave like short-lived perennials. The best thing to do is replace it with a hardier variety. (The yellow, amber, and lime green cultivars seem especially tender; go for purple and true green species.) As for the yarrow, it’s a guess that it is a water-related issue. Yarrow thrives in hot, dry conditions with low soil fertility—sometimes container conditions are a bit too rich for its liking.
I planted yellow yarrow. And wanted to know should I dead head the flowers? Will I get more blooms and how long do they bloom?
