Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
A tough, long-blooming perennial with ferny, aromatic leaves and flat flower heads all summer that butterflies and other pollinators visit, good fresh or dried. It thrives in lean, dry soil and heat. It spreads fast by roots and seed, so deadhead it or give it room to roam, and keep it out of wet ground.
- Mature size
- 2.5 × 2.5 ft
- 0.8 × 0.8 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to medium
- Blooms
- Jun–Sep
Yarrow at its mature size
A mature Yarrow grows 2 to 3 feet tall and just as wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What Yarrow looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Dec–Mar
Cut back; only a flat rosette at ground level.
In leaf · Apr–May
Low mound of feathery gray-green fern-like leaves, no flower stems yet.
In flower · Jun–Sep
Upright stems topped with flat, dense clusters of tiny white flowers.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Flower heads faded to flat brown-tan seed heads on tan stems, foliage dull green.
Photos
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Growing Yarrow
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinators, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Europe, Western Asia, and North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Yarrow, that’s about 2.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Yarrow in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.