Friday 10 September 2010

This Week's Plant From The Garden - Achillea

Named after the Greek hero, Achilles, who apparently discovered its healing properties but is better known as Yarrow or Milfoil. Other names include Nosebleed, Thousand leaf, Soldier's Woundwort, Devil's Nettle and Carpeter's Weed and is used to control bleeding/heamorrhaging.
We have two varieties, Achillea Millefolium 'Fire King' (red) and Achillea Millefollium (white). We got them because they attract all manner of insects, they remind me of the countryside and because they provide really good ground cover for our dry garden.
Family: Asteraceae/Compositae
Position: Sunny, well drained soil.
Flowers: Summer. And again in early autumn if the weather is mild. Ours has just produced a second if modest set of flowers following the rain.
Dimensions: 60cm high by 60cm wide.
Habit: Perennial herbs - full hardy.
Care: Leave it to it's own devices - comes up year after year.
Pruning: Not necessary but you can just pull it up in clumps if it spreads where you don't want it.
Propagation: By division in early spring or autumn or soft wood cuttings in late spring.
Origin/Distribution: Europe, Asia & North America, my father-in-law's lawn and almost every hedgerow or piece of scrub land I've ever come across!

Key:
Bold/italics = experts
Everything else = made up stuff so don't believe a word
LxXx

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