Since first growing feverfew, it has quickly become one of my absolute favorite flowers. Not only are they insanely easy to grow, but their cold tolerance makes them a sure winner for the cut flower farm (and home flower garden). Though feverfew is often grown as an annual, many actually consider it to be a short-lived perennial.
Starting feverfew from seed is also extremely simple. While I’ve heard some people say they don’t need it, I prefer to cold stratify my feverfew seeds in order to get the best germination possible. To do this, all I do is place the seed package in a ziplock bag and then place it into the fridge. If you’ve got kids or someone who gets into stuff, make sure it’s kept in a safe place. Safety first! 🙂
The best time to plant feverfew varies, and really, there’s a lot of options depending upon the grower. Here in my garden, I usually make two plantings of feverfew. I could technically make more plantings, but the quality of the plants seem to suffer a little bit once the heat of summer hits its hottest.
My garden is in zone 6b/7. For me, feverfew will usually overwinter without any protection in my garden pretty consistently. On the odd occasion that the winter is extra harsh, I may lose up to 25% of the plants. So, if I have a little bit of room left in the hoophouse, I might put the feverfew in there.
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The next planting of feverfew that I make is in the winter/spring. Feverfew grows really well when germinated outdoors using the winter sowing method. If you’re not familiar with the winter sowing method, I encourage you to check out my posts about it. It seriously changed the way that I grow flowers! Technically, feverfew can also be direct sowed, but I usually don’t because I don’t get as good germination results.
Once the seeds have germinated, the seedlings are crazy easy to transplant. While a lot of plants may have issues with transplant shock, feverfew goes into the garden without any trouble at all.
After planting, feverfew plants are generally carefree and require little attention from me – which is great. Since the plants do get pretty tall, the flower patch may require a little bit of horizontal trellis netting to keep the stems upright (especially during strong storms). Once picked, the feverfew looks great in cut flower arrangements. Not to mention – the pollinators absolutely love these! As always make sure to do your research and wear some good quality gloves, as feverfew may irritate some people’s skin.
I grew feverfew for the first time last year and they never really “died back”. I love them! It seems like I should cut them back at some point. When should I do that. Also, I am so impressed with the way you grow ranuncula. I gave them a try for the third time, planting them in a large container in the spring. They came up, but only 2 of them bloomed out of 36. Then it got hot.( I live in Cincinnati.) So I pulled out all the corms, once again disheartened. Then 2 of them that I missed came up. They are still green even after some cold weather and light snow! I stupidly thought they wouldn’t come back. Now I wish I had just left all of them in the pot! I’m going to try again next year!
I’ve never really cut feverfew back since I usually grow them as an annual. I keep meaning to grow ranunculus in a pot so that I can learn to over winter a small planting. Thanks for commenting! Happy gardening!