One important reason to plant yarrow in your garden is that it will attract pollinators. Plant it near your vegetable garden for the greatest benefits.
Yarrow has many health benefits.
Yarrow Health Uses:
- Yarrow Tea (Hot) Or Tincture For Fevers
- Yarrow For Digestive Support
- Yarrow For Headaches
- Yarrow Poultice, Compress, Or Salve For Wounds
- Cardiovascular Support
- Yarrow Tea (Cold) For Urinary Support
- Yarrow Tea For Postpartum And Menstrual Support
- Yarrow For Skin And Hair
Growing Yarrow:
Yarrow is easy to grow and isn’t picky about the soil.
Buy a nice sized yarrow plant from your local nursery. Once it gets properly established, you will never be without it in your garden again.
- Ideally, you want to put it in light, sandy soil that drains well.
- However yarrow is a plant that is very adaptable and will grow in just about any soil. It likes full sun but will grow in partial shade.
- Water it deeply twice a week for the first month.
- Yarrow is a very forgiving plant and very hardy. It is a good plant to put where there is little water because it thrives on neglect.
- It is frost-resistant and will add some greenery to the winter garden if you have mild to moderately cold winters. If you are in an area that experiences snowfall, it will die down completely in winter. It will come up again on its own in the spring.
Yarrow is a very good companion plant. It improves the health of plants growing nearby and enhances their essential oil content while improving soil fertility.
Yarrow is well-known for its ability to improve the soil.
Dividing Yarrow:
Every three to five years, in spring or fall, divide the clump of yarrow. You can plant the runners that have taken root. Remove any dead leaves and add them to the compost heap.
Once established, this herb will withstand a lot of neglect.
Note: I have been advised by a reader that yarrow caused her to get a rash.
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Mom used to grow it and it’s how I got started with growing it in my flower beds and I never knew what the benefits were. I plan to grow more of it.
I just split my Yarrow a couple weeks ago. Hope it does ok – I love this perennial. Happy to say that here in Michigan’s thumb I have not had the problem of so many others of it taking over. I was surprised to read that as that has not been my experience at all. I had two large “clumps” in my front garden and it never spread.
My experience is with yellow narrow here in Michigan. Yes, it will spread on runners, but I live in the country and have lots of room for it! I will never go without it and transplant from home to home. Even sent to my niece in Texas. I’ve personally made a poultice of the leaves and tied it to areas with gapping holes from Brown recluse spider bites. Heals better than anything a doctor can treat you with!
I dug up a couple pieces that have survived my horses, but didn’t know what it was. Seems it’s a white yarrow. It’s been in the same spot for several years and wasn’t sure it would take being potted, but it’s doing just fine.
According to the books I have on herbs, only the white or pink ones should be used internally. Can you point me to the resources where the yellow ones are used internally?
When making yarrow tea, do you just use the leaves or the flowers, too.
Thank you for the info on yarrow. I love to see yellow flowers. I will certainly look for it at the nursery. It looks so pretty in your garden.
Very interesting…never knew this about this plant. As to a rash…heh, I am even allergic to lettuce (among a great lot of other stuff) and a couple of my kin are allergic to rice…we can find ourselves allergic to absolutely anything!!
I love to dry yarrow…it is pretty in dried arrangements and wreaths!
I find it somewhat comical that in Oklahoma yarrow is cultivated as a perennial while in Alberta Canada it is almost bordering on being a noxious weed. It grows in our ditches and once it is introduced into a flower bed, it is there for life, we can’t get rid of it. It even invades our lawns. I now have it in my flower beds, it got in when I planted a package of wild flowers.
I have it for years growing in my beds and never had a problem with it getting outside of them and in the yard.
Please also advise your readers that you can get a serious rash from yarrow. My skin blistered after I planted three blooming clumps in my yard. I had to have my husband remove them. My dermatologist told me that it is not uncommon to be allergic to yarrow. I love your little piece of paradise. You definitely have a green thumb and are blessed.
I just added a note at the bottom of this post about your rash and some people’s susceptibility to it.
I’ve only planted yarrow once, on the recommendation of my MIL. She said it grew with little care and came up every year. I did take her advice and bought it in several of the colors it was available in. However, be warned! It will come up everywhere through the runners it establishes and its seeds in the fall. Before long, it was everywhere and it was choking out all my other plants. My MIL discovered the same thing by the 3rd and 4th year of her planting in her garden. Yarrow is probably best suited for growing in a large containers where the runners can be contained or on very large properties where you will better enjoy large swathes of it. It is an easy care plant in that it defies the hot summer heat and requires no watering other than to get it started upon initial planting. Small garden people need to be aware since it will even begin to choke out grassy lawn areas.
Good to know. I planted Ivy, big mistake. Now I am trying to get rid of liriope. It was all good when the landscaper recommended it and planted a little clump. You really have to do your homework. Have a good weekend!
Hi Brenda. Happy Saturday. I will have to see if my garden center has this. I could put some around my cherub birdbath. Have a good Memorial Day.
Kris
Thank you very much for that information I had no idea