achillea flowers dried UK

Achillea dried flowers

Achillea dried flowers come in two types

I always thought of Achillea flowers as being those large yellow umbels so popular with the bees, but I recently found out there’s a smaller button flower as well. Achillea is also known as Yarrow. I’ve tried drying both types which I sourced from UK growers.

Achillea Cloth of Gold

This Achillea is a large flat flower, usually in sunshine yellow. The species name is Achillea filipendulina and two popular varieties are Cloth of Gold and Parker. Just to confuse things Cloth of Gold is also a common name for the flower. This Achillea has a nice firm shape which holds well when dried. Here’s a pic of it hanging up to dry in my workshop. The structure underneath is very interesting.

cloth of gold drying
Achillea Cloth of Gold drying

This large umbel flower does also come in shades of pink, white and red, but I haven’t had any luck drying them – they just faded to a very insipid shade. This type of Achillea is perfect for larger bouquets and arrangements, or home decor, bringing a mid-century vibe to any room.

dried achillea flower structure
Dried Achillea flower structure

Achillea ptarmica

These little white pearl flowers are only a centimetre or two across, making them great for small projects such as flower crowns, hair accessories and buttonholes. The variety of Pearl Yarrow I dried recently in my workshop is called Achillea ptarmica Ballerina.

drying achillea ballerina uk
Drying Achillea Ballerina

The bunches arrived in a mixture of single flowers with a pretty yellow centre, and double flowers which were more like little white pompoms with no centre.

achillea ballerina flowers dried uk
Achillea Ballerina flowers dried – single
achillea flowers double white dried uk
Achillea Ballerina flowers dried – double

How to dry Achillea

You can read about how to dry flowers in general here

  • Just hang small bunches of flowers up somewhere warm and dry with good air circulation.
  • If it’s also dark it will help avoid discolouration.
  • I dried the Cloth of Gold in bunches of 5 stems and the smaller Button Yarrow in bunches of 10 stems.
  • They were both fully dry after a week in my drying room but yours might be different.

Here’s an extra tip for hanging the stems up (scroll to bottom of that page)

Once dried, I noticed that the Cloth of Gold stems had turned from green to silvery sage but the flowers were much the same. I noticed that some of the Pearl Yarrow stems were a bit lax so may need to be supported by other flowers in a mixed bouquet, and the white colour was now cream.

Other dried flowers from my workshop

Find out tips on how to dry Gypsophila, Nigella, Hydrangea and more via our dried flowers A to Z

 

These and other dry blooms can be purchased at my UK shop