How to Grow Yarrow: Planting, Care & Uses

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium and hybrids) is the plant for gardeners who want long-blooming color without babying anything. It’s a hardy perennial that shrugs off drought, poor soil, heat, and neglect, throwing flat-topped clusters of white, yellow, gold, pink, red, and terracotta from early summer into fall — all while feeding bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects. Plant it in full sun and lean, well-drained soil, space plants 1–2 feet apart, water sparingly, and divide every few years. Here’s how to grow yarrow and use it as a cut and dried flower.

In this guide

1. Why Yarrow Is So Easy (and One Catch)
2. Yarrow Varieties and Colors
3. When and Where to Plant Yarrow
4. Starting Yarrow From Seed
5. Watering and Feeding
6. Deadheading, Cutting Back and Staking
7. Dividing and Controlling Spread
8. Pests, Disease and Pollinators
9. Companion Planting and Garden Design
10. Traditional and Practical Uses
11. Cutting and Drying Yarrow
12. Frequently Asked Questions

Why Yarrow Is So Easy (and One Catch)

Yarrow evolved in dry meadows, so the conditions that kill fussier perennials are exactly what it wants: full sun, lean soil, sharp drainage, and infrequent water. Treat it kindly with rich compost and frequent irrigation and it pays you back with weak, flopping stems and fewer blooms. The one catch is its vigor — common yarrow spreads by underground rhizomes and can colonize a bed, so give it room or contain it. Named hybrids (the ‘Summer Berries’, ‘Moonshine’, and ‘Terracotta’ types) are better behaved than the wild species.

Yarrow Varieties and Colors

The wild white Achillea millefolium is tough and beautiful but spreads hard, so most gardeners reach for better-behaved named hybrids that also expand the color range far beyond white. ‘Moonshine’ is the classic — bright canary-yellow flat heads over silvery, finely cut foliage, compact and reliable. ‘Coronation Gold’ is taller (3 feet) with large, deep-gold plates that are superb for drying and hold their stems upright. The ‘Summer Berries’ / ‘Summer Pastels’ seed strains give a mix of pinks, roses, creams, and apricots from a single packet, ideal for a meadow look. ‘Terracotta’ opens burnt orange and fades to soft buff, prized by flower arrangers for its shifting tones, while ‘Paprika’ brings cherry-red with a yellow eye. ‘Cerise Queen’ is a vivid magenta-pink, and the compact ‘Little Moonshine’ suits small gardens and the front of borders. Pink and red varieties tend to fade toward cream as flowers age, which many gardeners enjoy as a feature; the yellows (Moonshine, Coronation Gold) hold their color longest and are the top choices for cutting and drying.

When and Where to Plant Yarrow

• Timing: Plant nursery starts or divisions in spring after frost, or in early fall. Seed can be started indoors 8–10 weeks before last frost.
• Sun: Full sun — at least 6 hours. Shade produces leggy, flopping plants and sparse bloom.
• Soil: Average to poor, well-drained soil, pH 5.5–7.0. Sandy and rocky soils are perfect. Avoid rich, wet ground.
• Spacing: 12–24 inches apart, depending on variety — they fill in fast.

Yarrow is a natural fit for low-water, sunny borders and pollinator plantings. For more drought-tough perennials, see our Plants & Flowers guides.

Starting Yarrow From Seed

Yarrow grows readily from seed, though named hybrids won’t come true and are better bought as plants. Surface-sow seed indoors 8–10 weeks before your last frost and press it in without covering — it needs light to germinate. Keep at 65–70°F; seedlings appear in 14–21 days. Transplant out after frost. Seed-grown common yarrow often blooms its first year if started early. You can also direct sow in spring or fall on prepared, weed-free soil.

Watering and Feeding

Water new plants regularly for the first few weeks to establish roots. After that, yarrow is genuinely drought-tolerant — water only during extended dry spells, roughly when the top 2–3 inches of soil are dry. Established plants often need no supplemental water at all in temperate climates.

Skip the fertilizer. Yarrow blooms best in lean soil; feeding produces lush foliage at the expense of flowers and makes stems flop. If your soil is very poor, a single light spring feeding is plenty.

Deadheading, Cutting Back and Staking

Deadhead faded flower clusters down to a side bud or healthy leaf to encourage a second flush of bloom and to limit self-seeding. After the main bloom, you can shear the whole plant back by about a third to tidy it and prompt fresh growth.

Tall types in rich soil or part shade may need light support — but the better fix is to grow them hard in full sun and lean ground, where stems stay sturdy on their own. Cut stems back to the basal foliage in late fall or leave seed heads standing for winter interest and birds.

Dividing and Controlling Spread

Divide clumps every 2–3 years in spring or fall to keep them vigorous and prevent the bare-center decline that old clumps develop. Dig the clump, split it into sections with roots and shoots, and replant. To curb spreading, plant yarrow in a confined bed, edge it cleanly, or pull rhizomes that wander where you don’t want them. For container culture, use a wide, well-drained pot and divide annually.

Pests, Disease and Pollinators

• Powdery mildew & rust: The main issues, usually from poor airflow or shade. Space well and grow in full sun.
• Root rot: Strictly an overwatering/poor-drainage problem.
• Pests: Few. Yarrow is largely deer- and rabbit-resistant thanks to its aromatic, ferny foliage.
• Pollinators: The flat flower heads are landing pads for bees, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, butterflies, and ladybugs, making yarrow a strong companion plant in vegetable and flower gardens.

Companion Planting and Garden Design

Yarrow is one of the most useful companion plants in the garden because its flat, open flower heads feed an army of beneficial insects — parasitic wasps, hoverflies, lacewings, and ladybugs — that prey on aphids and other pests. Tuck it near the vegetable garden or in an orchard understory to keep those predators close to your crops. It also pairs naturally with other lean-soil, full-sun perennials that share its drought tolerance and meadow style: ornamental grasses, salvia, echinacea, rudbeckia, lavender, sedum, and Russian sage all thrive in the same hands-off conditions and bloom on overlapping schedules. Design-wise, yarrow’s horizontal plates are a foil for spiky vertical neighbors like salvia and liatris and for the daisy forms of coneflowers — combining the three flat-spike-daisy shapes is a reliable recipe for a dynamic sunny border. Because it shrugs off poor soil, yarrow is a top choice for hell-strips, gravel gardens, slopes, and the dry edges where little else thrives. Avoid planting it among pampered, heavily watered annuals, where the rich, moist conditions make it flop and outcompete softer neighbors by spreading.

Traditional and Practical Uses

Yarrow has a long history beyond the ornamental border, reflected in its botanical name Achillea — legend held that Achilles used it to staunch his soldiers’ wounds, earning it folk names like “soldier’s woundwort” and “nosebleed plant.” Gardeners today value it mainly for its dual life as a pollinator magnet and a premier everlasting flower, but the aromatic, ferny foliage that makes it deer- and rabbit-resistant also makes it a tidy addition to compost (it is sometimes called a “compost activator”) and a fragrant filler in dried wreaths and sachets. A word of caution: yarrow can cause skin irritation in sensitive people and is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses if eaten in quantity, so site it thoughtfully and wear gloves if you handle large amounts. None of this changes how you grow it — it simply adds to the reasons a single easy plant earns its space.

Cutting and Drying Yarrow

Yarrow is a premium cut and dried flower. For fresh bouquets, cut when the flower clusters are fully open and the tiny florets have colored up; immature heads wilt. Strip lower foliage and condition in water for several hours — fresh vase life is 7–10 days. To dry, harvest fully open, firm heads, bundle loosely, and hang upside down in a warm, dark, airy spot for 1–2 weeks. Dried yarrow keeps its gold, white, and terracotta tones for many months and is a staple of everlasting arrangements alongside strawflowers.