Sneezewort Seeds (Achillea ptarmica)

Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica) is a native perennial of damp meadows, marshes and water margins, growing 25 to 50cm tall. It has narrow, finely toothed leaves on upright stems and carries loose clusters of small white daisy-like flowers, each with a creamy centre, from July to September. The whole plant is aromatic and was once dried and powdered as a snuff, which gives it its name.

The open flowers are easy for insects to reach and are visited by bees, hoverflies and butterflies in late summer, when many other meadow species have finished. It is a long-lived perennial that spreads slowly by creeping roots to form clumps, adding a late flush of white to wet grassland alongside Devil’s-bit Scabious and Ragged Robin. It has a long history in herbal use.

It needs moist soil that does not dry out in summer, in full sun or partial shade. It suits a damp meadow, a pond or ditch margin, a wet rush pasture or the low corner of a field, and it will cope with occasional winter flooding. Avoid thin, dry, free-draining ground, where it will fade.

Sow in autumn or spring onto bare or scarified ground, surface-sown and firmed in without covering. Plants build a clump in the first year and flower from the second summer. Cut in autumn after seed has been shed and remove the cuttings, or graze lightly, and it will persist for many years. Combine with our wet meadow mixes or single species that share the same damp conditions.