Planting Yarrow
Yarrow is a warm season flower in the Asteraceae family. Getting the timing right is the difference between a strong stand and a disappointing one, so the windows below are given relative to your own last spring frost and first fall frost rather than a generic calendar date. Look up your local frost dates and count back or forward from there.
Yarrow is started indoors 8–10 weeks before your last spring frost date, giving seedlings a head start before they move outside.
Transplant young plants outdoors 0–2 weeks before your last frost — Yarrow tolerates cool conditions and benefits from an early start.
Yarrow can be grown by starting indoors and transplanting. Starting indoors gives the longest, most controlled season, while direct sowing is simplest where the season is long enough.
Spacing and Planting Depth
Give Yarrow room to mature. The figures below come from verified extension and seed-supplier data for typical varieties.
| Spacing in row | 12 inches |
|---|---|
| Row spacing | 18 inches |
| Plants per sq ft | 0.67 |
| Planting depth | 0 inches |
| Sun requirement | Full sun |
Plan a square-foot bed with Yarrow →
Calculate plants in a bed for Yarrow →
Days to Maturity
Yarrow reaches maturity in 100–130 days from transplant.
Yarrow is ready to harvest after about 115 days. Harvest before the first fall frost, which will end the plant's productive season.
Conditions and Care
As a warm-season flower, Yarrow needs warm soil and settled weather to thrive, and is set back or killed by frost. It is frost hardy and can shrug off light freezes, so it can stay in the ground later into the season than tender crops.
Yarrow needs full sun — give it at least six hours of direct light a day for the best growth and flavor. Sow seed about 0 inches deep — small seed is sown shallow and barely covered, then keep the soil evenly moist until seedlings establish.
Yarrow belongs to the Asteraceae family; rotating where you grow members of this family each year helps limit the build-up of soil-borne pests and disease. Yarrow is generally grown as a single planting each season rather than succession sown.
See Yarrow in the full planting calendar for your ZIP →
Plan crop rotation for Asteraceae →
Growing Notes
Perennial; attracts beneficial insects. Surface-sow.
Related Crops
Other crops you might grow alongside or instead of Yarrow.
In the same family
Yarrow is in the Asteraceae family. Other Asteraceae crops in the Gardenable database:
Similar growing requirements
Crops with similar season and time to maturity — useful if you want a diverse garden on a similar schedule: