Yarrow New Vintage Violet is a compact, long-blooming achillea with spectacular violet-magenta flowers. Known for their hardiness and drought tolerance, many yarrows grow quite tall, with the ‘millefoil’ species reaching 3 feet or more. This cultivar stays much shorter at only 12-15″, making it a great option for the front of the border in dry, sunny garden beds.

The nectar-rich blossoms attract butterflies and other pollinators. New Vintage varieties do not reseed to become invasive, unlike common yarrow. Cut back flowers by half after flowers have faded to promote a second bloom.

The three 4″ pots I received as a road-trip gift from John were mislabelled as ‘New Vintage White’. I planted them before they had bloomed, so we didn’t know this until I had already situated them among some pink-flowering escallonia (hoping to create a nice contrast of pink and white).

To my surprise, they almost create a contrast in the other direction – the violet blooms of this yarrow are so eye-popping that the escallonia flowers pale in comparison. I may move them at some point, but I’m leaving them put to come into their full glory this summer (2023).