Feverfew
Overview:
Feverfew aka matricria, is a dainty, fun, wildflower-esque flower. Feverfew comes in many different varieties, but I usually grow double varieties. It’s something that florists usually do not find in wholesale flower shops or grocery stores. It’s a cool season annual planted in the fall, but this flower is one of the later cool season plants to flower. Buds are initiated by longer day lengths, so typically they won’t flower until after mothers Day.
Starting seeds:
Starting seeds for Feverfew is relatively easy. I usually over-sow the seedlings, putting 3-5 seeds per cell. I do not thin out seedlings for this flower. Surface sow the seeds, and sprinkle a fine layer of vermiculite atop. Check out my seed starting guide for more tips and tricks for indoor seed starting. Start seeds indoors in September or October.
When to plant outdoors:
October-November. This plant is hardy to zone 5. We recomend a fall planting in all zones for best blooms.
Spacing:
12” apart
Height:
36-48”
Sun:
Full sun 6+ hours
Flower Support:
Yes
Fertilizing:
Moderate
Typical bloom time:
Mid-may-June
Succession plant?
No
Seed Sourcing:
Find feverfew seeds in our shop here.
We absolutely loved growing this double feverfew ‘Tetra white’ in years past. Their double blooms are a unique spin on the traditional feverfew that is typically not found in the floral trade. When we grew flowers to sell to florist we would try to grow varities that were not common at the floral wholesales.
Feverfew is actually in the crasathamum family, so there are some slight mum characteristics to their flowers. Their leaves are very similar to a mum as well, even the scent of leaves.
Feverfew makes such an elegant filler to any flower boquets. We paired them with some ‘oxford blue' scabiosa as well as Procut ‘Gold Lite’ sunflower. These made a gorgeous combo perfect that were blooming here in zone 9b in late may.
We typically do not have a ton of feverfew for mothers day, but usually there is some. It seems to always come into full bloom a week or two after the holiday. Feverfew is a daylight sensitive plant, so it takes longer days for it to bloom.
When feverfew starts to bloom, it seems to all blooms at once. Be ready to use it! lol
Since feverfew is in the mum family, it usually has a good vase life to use. It can last between 10-14 days from our experience.
This is typically what our feverfew looks like at the end of March here in zone 9b after fall planting them (October/November).
We always Net or support all of our feverfew because they will get tall! We love using Hortnova netting with garden stakes. You can also use rebar for extra support instead of garden stakes. We typically use rebar for all of our hoops for covering plants if they need shade, so we always had rebar laying around.
For all of our favorite plant support, check out our amazon recommendations here.
Feverfew is a relatively easy plant to grow. It just takes a long time from seed to bloom. It is one of the last ‘cool season’ crops to bloom but it is definitely worth the wait!
Feverfew is a short lived perennial, but typically we just treat them as annuals in our zone. Hope you give this beautiful flower a try in your garden!
