Achillea or Yarrow for Your Summer Garden
Achillea (pronounced ah-KILL-ee-ah) has a dozen nicknames including yarrow, old man's pepper, milfoil, thousand-leaf, woundwort, devil's nettle and others. The species name, millefolium means thousand-leaf. That name comes from yarrow’s many-toothed leaves. Yarrow is the most commonly used name for all the varieties that are available. It is an easy to grow herbaceous (dies to the ground in the winter) perennial that will come back year after year. The wild, white flowering, variety that grows in fields has been tamed over and over again, making garden yarrow into a reliable and beautiful perennial that likes heat, humidity and lean soil. All yarrows have flat flower-heads that contain dozens of small, clustered flowers that are ignored by deer and damaging insects. The green or grey-green leaves are feathery and scented or aromatic. Gardeners who want cut flowers for the house cannot resist long-lasting yarrow blooms. The flower heads are 2 to 6 inches across on 18 to 24 inch ...