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Achillea 'Salmon Beauty' (Salmon Yarrow) - This perennial yarrow forms a spreading mat to 3+ feet wide of fern-like, mid-green leaves. The large flat heads, rising 18 inches above the foliage have salmon-pink flowers that fade to creamy yellow beginning in late spring and continuing through summer.
Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate regularly. Can withstand summer drought but looks much better when irrigated and grown in full sun. Hardy to at least 0 degrees F. A great accent plant or ground cover that is a good nectar source for butterflies but left alone by deer.
'Salmon Beauty' is sometimes called 'Lachsshonheit', the German name under which it was first named. It is one of the Galaxy Hybrids, a group of hybrids imported from Germany that resulted from the crossing Achillea millefolium (pink and red flowered forms) with the yellow Achillea 'Taygetea' (AKA Achillea aegyptiaca var. taygetea). Most of the series vegetatively resemble Achillea millefolium with mats of pale to dark green, dissected leaves but the larger heads of flowers come from Achillea 'Taygetea' parent.
The name Achillea was named for the Greek mythological character Achilles, who in Homer's Iliad was a student of the centaur Chiron, known for his great knowledge of medicine. Achilles' soldiers in the battle against Troy used yarrow to treat wounds garnering the plant herbal fame and giving it common names such as allheal and bloodwort. Legend had it that the plant sprung from Achilles spear. The specific epithet millefolium means "thousand-leaf" in reference to its fern-like foliage. This plant received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1999 and we have grown this very nice cultivar since 1994.
The information displayed on this page about Achillea 'Salmon Beauty' is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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