yarrow is one of those plants that earns a place almost anywhere there is sun. tough, aromatic, drought tolerant once established, and willing to spread into a dense perennial patch, it is equally at home in a meadow, around young fruit trees, along a rough garden edge, or woven through a food forest.
the name *achillea* comes from achilles, the warrior of greek mythology, reflecting yarrow’s long association with wounds and traditional herbal medicine. its finely divided, intensely aromatic foliage and flat clusters of white flowers have made it a familiar plant across much of the northern hemisphere.
those flowers are also remarkably useful insect habitat. yarrow’s many tiny, accessible flowers attract bees, flies, predatory insects, and parasitoid wasps — minute beneficial wasps whose larvae develop in other insects and can help regulate populations of aphids, caterpillars, and other garden pests. yarrow is consequently useful not just as a “pollinator plant,” but as part of the working insect ecology of a garden or orchard.
once established, yarrow spreads through rhizomes as well as seed and can develop into substantial colonies. it particularly suits sunny, well-drained ground and tolerates lean soils and dry conditions that leave fussier garden perennials struggling.
our plants are grown from wild-collected southern maine seed rather than ornamental cultivars. we sell them as dense perennial clumps: plant one into a sunny patch, let it establish, and give it room to become part of the landscape.
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