The common yarrow or common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) often grows in the wild along roadsides or in fodder meadows. The edible medicinal plant is also a visual enrichment in the garden bed with little maintenance.
The yarrow blooms for a very long time
Asteraceae with persistence
In contrast to many other perennials, the yarrow blooms quite persistently for several weeks, depending on the location and the weather a little earlier or later in the period from May to September. From a botanical point of view, the plant is a daisy family, which can lead to skin irritations and other intolerances in sensitive people. Due to the so-called "cymes", the white natural varieties of yarrow in particular are occasionally confused with quite poisonous doubles from the umbelliferae. These “doubles” include, for example:
- Meadowfoam (non-toxic)
- Spotted Hemlock (Poisonous)
- Giant Hogweed (Poisonous)
Care measures for a second flower
If the yarrows in your garden flowered relatively early and have already faded, you can stimulate a second flowering in the same year by cutting off the old flowers in a timely manner. This care measure for renewed flowering can also be done with a harvest of parts of the plant for use as a medicinal plant.
Leave faded plants in the bed
Even after flowering, the stalks and flower plates of the yarrow are sometimes impressively stable. That is why some gardeners like to leave them in the bed as a decoration over the winter and only remove them in the spring.
tips
If you want to encourage particularly large and floriferous flower plates in your yarrow in the garden, you can cut off weaker shoots on the plants in spring or "clip" them off with your fingernail. In this way, the plants concentrate their growth energy on a smaller number of stronger shoots.