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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Yes, you should prune the flowersdown to basal foliage once the bloom is completed. You should get more blooms, and yarrow blooms from mid- to late summer.
Planted in long flower box, placed on my deck. After summer my yarrow got very tan colored leaves, never bloomed. gently watering n pruning off dead often. Babying it all summer n fall... Winter hits S.E. Pennsylvania, neglected, cuz it's winter, now it's late March it's dry, so I water the dirt thoroughly. Place in sun. Five days later gentle watering again. Soil too dry. Looks dead, still! How do I help it? I want it for medicinal reasons. (Originally bought at Home Depot, King Edward Yarrow yellow variety) or should I have watered it through the winter? Or never should hv used a pot? Should I start over? Help! I'm usually pretty good with plants, this ones got me confused, my squirrels loved it last year, lil brats! Lol
Hi, Linda, From what we can glean, this is a low grower, a carpet plant unlike the taller types grown as border perennials. It is described as developing a woolly green mass an inch or two high, with 6-inch flower stems in early to mid summer. It does well in a rock garden (that means it can take the heat), prefers dry to wet (it’s drought tolerant), and can take light foot traffic; it’s does just ok as a container plant, according to one source (of course it was probably in a container when you bought it). Th squirrels may have had a paw in it’s demise, too.
Our best advice is to start over … Better luck!
Are we supposed to cut back dead leaves in the fall and winter?
It’s recommended to cut stems back to an inch or two above soil line after the first killing frost in the fall. If you live in a climate without frost you can prune the plants back in early spring before they start budding.
I would like to purchase the Millefolium yarrow to use for herbal remedies! Do you have this one available also or only the red & yellow?
My yarrow is at least a year old. It grew some good flowers last year but before the flowers completely bloomed the flowers and stems died off. same thing happened this year. then the leaves have started to curl up. I do need to weed the garden but is something else causing this?
Hi, Jeshua, Stem rot, powdery mildew and rust are occasional problems that beset yarrow. Botrytis (gray mold), which attacks buds, flowers, leaves, and stems can be the problem.
Avoid planting in windy areas or in soil that it too rich; it tolerates lean to poor soil and doesn't thrive in moist, rich fertile soils. Give the plants plenty of sun. Divide ovecrowded clumps.
We hope this helps.
my Yarrow is 10 years old but never really grew. I've never had to divide it. It doesn't get water but once a week and it has partial shade.
Yarrow really does grow best in full sun. It needs at least 4 hours of direction sunlight even there are parts of the day with partial shade
