How To Grow Yarrow – Achillea Coronation Gold

Yarrow comes in many colors ranging from magenta to red to orange to yellow and beyond. Yellow yarrow is an eye-catcher in the drought-tolerant garden with fern-like blue-green foliage that sets off the golden yellow flower umbels. Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’  has been one of my favorite varieties due to its tough nature and love for hard-to-grow hot spots in the garden. It is a great water saver and wonderfully planted in xeric gardens. At almost any time of its 4 to 5 week bloom period, you can find the achillea plants dancing with butterflies and pollinators. Yarrow is excellent perennials that can be used as a cut or dried flower and hold its color after it is dried.

How To Grow Yarrow

• Remarkably tolerant of drought, heat, and humidity; yarrow is perfect for a hot and dry site. It prefers extremely well drained soil.
• Plant in full sun whenever possible (although I have a couple plants in shade that flower less, but still do well). Wear gloves when planting as many people suffer from itchy skin from the ferny yarrow leaves.
• Yarrow spreads, although it is not overly invasive. Consider planting it with plenty of space to stretch it’s shoulders.
• Over fertilization can cause a floppy plant, so fertilize lightly with an organic fertilizer or not at all.
• Dead-head spent blooms to extend its blooming period.
• Typically likes to be divided in spring or fall every 4 years or so, or anytime it becomes overcrowded.

Design Tips –

Design tips for yarrow include planting them with contrasting colors on the color wheel for a real pop of color in the garden. For example, in the below photo you see yellow yarrow in front of a purplish nepeta. They are opposites on the color wheel (see right).

Yellow yarrow mixed in amongst oranges and reds makes a more harmonious, but equally beautiful display. When you blend perennials together that have bloom colors that reside on the same side of the color wheel, it contrasts less and blends a bit more.

Yarrow also looks amazing in monochromatic gardens that are all one color. For example, you could plant ‘Coronation Gold’ in with other yellow blooming plants for a seasonal display of all yellow.

Try planting a taller plant behind yarrow, then yarrow in the middle, and a groundcover in front for a “short, medium, tall” pattern in a perennial bed and border. Enjoy Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’; a lovely pollinator plant as it blooms through the middle of summer attracting butterflies and bees in waves.