Greek yarrow
Achillea ageratifolia
Greek yarrow (Achillea ageratifolia) is a low, mat-forming alpine perennial from the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula, grown for two things at once: a dense, silvery, near-evergreen mat of narrow, toothed, softly hairy leaves, and clean white daisy-like flower heads carried on slender stalks just above it in late spring and early summer. It is a very different plant from the common yarrow of borders and meadows: instead of ferny foliage and a flat corymb of tiny florets, this species has simple silver leaves (the name ageratifolia means Ageratum-leaved) and comparatively large, solitary or few-headed white flowers with pale yellow centres, each about 2 to 3 cm across. It stays small, roughly 6 to 10 inches tall in flower over a mat only a few inches high, which makes it a natural for troughs, walls, rock gardens, gravel, and the sunny front of a sharply drained bed. POWO (Kew) gives its native range as the Balkan Peninsula, and it holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit for UK cultivation. The honest condition of success is drainage: it wants full sun and lean, gritty, freely draining soil, is drought tolerant once established, and resents rich, heavy, or winter-wet ground, which is what usually kills it. It is an ornamental rather than a culinary yarrow, and its open daisy heads are easy nectar and pollen for bees and hoverflies.
Climate fit: moderate (47/100)
Pollinator
Border
Container
Light
Full sun
Water
Low water
Mature size
6-10" tall · 12" apart
Hardy in zones
3a-8b
brutally cold to frosty winters
Native in Illinois
No
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What matters in the garden is that the open, white, daisy-like flower heads are easy, accessible nectar and pollen: bees and hoverflies work them steadily through the late-spring-to-early-summer bloom, making it a modest but genuine pollinator plant among sharp-drainage alpines.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Well-suited
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Well-suited
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✓
Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 40 ecoregions - 35 climate-resilient through 2070 · 5 suited today. Best matches first.
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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Arizona Mountains forests
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Blue Mountains forests
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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands
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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests
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Central Tallgrass prairie
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Central-Southern Cascades Forests
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Colorado Rockies forests
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Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland
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Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Aubrieta deltoidea
Aubrieta
Aubrieta (Aubrieta deltoidea) is a low, mat-forming evergreen perennial in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to the rocky hillsides of southeastern Europe - primarily Greece, the Aegean Islands, Crete, and adjacent Mediterranean coasts. It is one of the most reliable spring-flowering ground covers for sunny, well-drained spots: cascading sheets of violet to deep pink four-petalled blooms from March through May, attractive to bees and bee flies. The honest catch is that without a hard cut-back immediately after flowering, plants become woody and bare in the centre within two or three years, collapsing from a tight carpet into a tired, gappy mat.
Colchicum autumnale
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Colchicum autumnale is a corm-forming herbaceous perennial native to lowland grassy meadows across much of Europe, from Portugal and Great Britain east to Ukraine. In autumn it sends up naked goblet-shaped flowers of lilac-pink directly from the bare soil - leaves and seedpods follow in spring and die back by early summer. The honest catch is its extreme toxicity: every part of the plant contains colchicine, a compound lethal to humans and animals, and the broad strap-like spring leaves are routinely mistaken for edible wild garlic - a potentially fatal confusion. Despite the common name, it is not a true crocus (Crocus, Iridaceae) but a member of the Colchicaceae.
Gerbera jamesonii
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Gerbera jamesonii, the Barberton daisy (also Transvaal daisy), is a tufted evergreen perennial herb in the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the summer-rainfall grasslands and rocky woodland of north-eastern South Africa and Eswatini. It forms a basal rosette of lobed leaves from which leafless flowering scapes rise, each topped by a single large daisy-style flowerhead in orange-red, yellow, pink, or white. It is the wild ancestor of the thousands of florist gerbera cultivars and earns its place as a long-blooming focal point in borders and patio containers, attractive to bees and other insects. The load-bearing caution is frost-tenderness: RHS rates it H1C, meaning it survives outdoors only in summer or the very mildest, frost-free spots and must be overwintered under glass elsewhere (roughly USDA 9-11). It is non-toxic, with no reported poisoning hazard to people or pets, making it a safe choice where toxicity is a concern.
Felicia amelloides
Blue daisy bush
Felicia amelloides is an evergreen, woody-based perennial subshrub native to a narrow coastal strip of South Africa's Western and Eastern Cape, where it colonises stabilising sand dunes, sandy flats, and rocky outcrops at 0-1,000 m. In the garden it delivers a near-continuous flush of sky-blue, yellow-centred daisy flowers on neat mounding growth, typically 12-24 inches but capable of reaching about 1 m, making it one of the few true blue-flowered plants for sunny pots and borders. The honest catch is frost-tenderness: it survives only light frost in sharply drained soil and collapses below about 23F (-5C), so outside USDA zones 9-11 it must be overwintered under glass or replaced annually - a real commitment in cool-temperate gardens.
Campanula carpatica
Carpathian harebell
Campanula carpatica is a low, mounding herbaceous perennial native to the rocky subalpine habitats of the Carpathian Mountains, ranging across Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine (Wikipedia). Its wide, upward-facing bell flowers in violet-blue, white, or pink appear from June through August, making it one of the longest-blooming edging perennials available, and it holds an RHS Award of Garden Merit. The honest catch is longevity: it tends to behave as a short-lived perennial, often thinning or declining after a few seasons, so gardeners should plan for regular division or fresh plants from seed to hold the planting.
Dianthus gratianopolitanus
Cheddar Pink
Cheddar pink is a low, mat-forming evergreen perennial pink (a Dianthus, not a true carnation) native to calcareous rock ledges and cliff faces across western and central Europe, from the protected population at Cheddar Gorge in England east to Ukraine. Its intensely clove-scented, fringed rose-pink flowers and blue-grey foliage make it one of the finest front-of-border edging plants in a sunny, sharply drained garden. The honest catch is drainage: in any soil that holds winter moisture the crown rots reliably, so it fails in heavy clay or irrigated beds and thrives only where drainage is sharp and the site stays dry underfoot in cold months.
Educator packet
Plant packet
Greek yarrow educator packet
Greek yarrow (Achillea ageratifolia) is a low, mat-forming alpine perennial from the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula, grown for two things at once: a dense, silvery, near-evergreen mat of narrow, toothed, softly hairy leaves, and clean white daisy-like flower heads carried on slender stalks just above it in late spring and early summer. It is a very different plant from the common yarrow of borders and meadows: instead of ferny foliage and a flat corymb of tiny florets, this species has simple silver leaves (the name ageratifolia means Ageratum-leaved) and comparatively large, solitary or few-headed white flowers with pale yellow centres, each about 2 to 3 cm across. It stays small, roughly 6 to 10 inches tall in flower over a mat only a few inches high, which makes it a natural for troughs, walls, rock gardens, gravel, and the sunny front of a sharply drained bed. POWO (Kew) gives its native range as the Balkan Peninsula, and it holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit for UK cultivation. The honest condition of success is drainage: it wants full sun and lean, gritty, freely draining soil, is drought tolerant once established, and resents rich, heavy, or winter-wet ground, which is what usually kills it. It is an ornamental rather than a culinary yarrow, and its open daisy heads are easy nectar and pollen for bees and hoverflies.
Scientific name
Achillea ageratifolia
Plant type
perennial
Hardiness
3a-8b
Light
full-sun
Moisture
low
Spacing
12 inches
Classroom prompts
- Which plant traits are observations, and which are care recommendations?
- How would this plant fit change if the garden location moved warmer, colder, wetter, or drier?
- Which source-backed facts would you cite in a lesson handout?
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Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Greek yarrow (Achillea ageratifolia). Retrieved 2026, July 14, from https://plotwright.com/plants/achillea-ageratifolia
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
Plants of the World Online (POWO)
Botanical research database
Backs 17 fields
Identity
Summary
Plant type
Light
Moisture
Hardiness
Heat zone
Size
Spacing
Habit
Design roles
Seasonal interest
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