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Yarrow
HydrangeaKate
Posts: 86
in Plants
is yarrow a weed? I've read in places that some people view it as one as it spreads and can be hard to get rid of? I'd love some for the back of my borders to go with the verbena, but not if it's going to takeover my borders
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It can be. Some varieties are quite tame - I've got one called terracotta which seems very well behaved so far. Taller the better seems to be my experience - I've a 'Gold Plate' which is doing fine so far and that's huge. But the smaller ones - 'I've got cassis' - seem inclined to go feral. They aren't hard to control, the roots are fairly shallow - but they lose shape and form quite quickly, straggle out over the bed and form a nice handy foothold for weeds. I had a pink one I've had to dig out because it just got bored and wandered off to annoy my roses
ETA I should have said - there is a wild one of course - that really is a weed. I assume you're thinking of cultivars not the species. The white one is a menace - pretty but very persistent
Last edited: 08 April 2017 11:10:55
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
There are lovely achilleas https://www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk/products/achillea-terracotta which are gorgeous
and then there's Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) the lawn weed
If only the former grew as well as the latter
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
snap Dove
. millefolium - that's the white one. I think the smaller ones are close to the species and therefore rather more robust
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I've got achillea millefolium 'red velvet' and love it. Hasn't spread at all although I've only had it a couple of years.
Have a pale yellow one, think it's 'moonshine' or something but that's a bit taller and flops a bit.
Ah ok, it was the white I was looking for - my borders an blues, purples pinks and whites
yellow and orange anre lovely but wont go with colour scheme 
Would achillea ptarmica be any better? I've got both in this bed but the millefolium somehow remained after being dug up
Beth Chatto describes ptarmica as 'invasive but invaluable as a cut flower' ... best take up flower arranging
http://www.bethchatto.co.uk/a-b/achillea-border-types/achillea-ptarmica-the-pearl.htm
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
They also fade to an unsightly brown
I told a whiteish lie above, the millefolium hasn't reappeared, on checking the bed it is just another plant I had forgotten about.
The link above keeps referring me to a knife wizard..?
I have the wild yarrow in my garden after buying seeds from an online wildflower retailer. I can honestly say I don't have a problem with it but then I love species plants. Ditto the achillea ptarmica (sneezewort)