Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Flat-topped landing pad for ladybirds, wasps and hoverflies.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 15.7 in
- In-row spacing
- 13.8 in
- Between rows
- 17.7 in
- Square-foot density
- 1 per square
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Sow indoors
- 56 days before the last spring frost
- Sow direct
- at the last spring frost
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 75 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- at the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Low
- Soil
- Poor, dry, well-drained
- Feeding
- Leave it unfed — lean ground makes a better plant than fed ground will.
- USDA zones
- 3a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- Take off the spent heads to bring on another flush, then cut the whole plant down in autumn.
Through the year
- Mar–Jun Spring Growth
- Jun–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- Cut in warm, dry mid-morning in summer — yarrow is one flower better cut later in the day when pollen is dry, and it must be cut mature.
- What to look for
- The whole flat corymb should be fully open with pollen visible and the head firm, not soft — immature yarrow wilts irretrievably within hours. Rub the head: it should feel slightly stiff and papery.
- How to harvest
- Cut long stems near the base with snips, strip the ferny lower foliage, and stand in cool water several hours before arranging. For herbal use (traditional wound-herb and tea), cut flowering tops with the top leaves.
- How often
- Cutting spent or harvested heads back to a lateral bud gives a second flush in late summer; established clumps tolerate repeated cutting.
- Storing the crop
- Superb keeper: 7–10 days fresh, and one of the best everlastings — hang in small bunches upside down in a dark airy place; dried heads hold shape and color for a year+. Dried herb stores airtight for teas.
Companions
Lavender, Echinacea, Grasses, Salvia
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Powdery mildew A white dusty coating over leaves and shoots when roots are dry but the air is humid. Keep plants watered and mulched, prune for airflow, and remove the worst leaves.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Did you know?
Its name Achillea recalls Achilles, who legend says used it to staunch his soldiers' wounds.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com