Unknown Achillea

Wildlifelover

Afternoon,

I bought these Achillea from a discount store a couple of weeks ago before they were in flower, with the label stating ‘Paprika’. 

However, now they’ve come into flower, they appear to be something else!

Would anyone know which variety they are so I know how to treat them?

Thanks. 

KeenOnGreen

Looks like Terracotta to me.  Still very nice.

Fairygirl

It wouldn't matter - the treatment is the same for all of them 
I'd agree though - probably Terracotta. It can be orange through to yellow as the flowers fade.
All varieties tend to do that, so you get variations through the season as the flowers come and go 

Wildlifelover

That’s great, thanks both. I think I actually prefer this to the ‘Paprika’ I thought I was buying!

Silver surfer

KeenOnGreen said:

Looks like Terracotta to me. 

agree.

GardenerSuze

@Wildlifelover A Terracotta is lovely but can be short lived. It is a good idea to keep deadheading for more flowers.However as it gets towards Autumn I like to keep some of the flowers as they look good over the winter.

Wildlifelover

Righty-ho, I’ll dead head it during the summer. How short-lived can they be, never quite sure what that term means.

 Thanks.

GardenerSuze

@Wildlifelover I think it will depend on your soil especially in winter, my soil can get wet and I found that after two years it wasn't doing so well by year three I just had a tiny piece. I would say that other forms are true perennials that will be happy for many years. Terracotta is one of the best of all the achilleas in my opinion, it fades to a lovely colour too. The flowers on all achilleas fade but if you go for a red one it can be very disappointing as it fades to pink.Can mess up a colour scheme as I have found in the past.
I think there are lots of plants that are classed as perennial but sometimes only for a few years whilst others can be happy for a long time if they are lifted and split when they loose vigour. 

thevictorian

They are very short lived here for some reason. We have very sandy soil and the paprika and tutti-fruitii achillea I had barely came back the second year. Achillea cloth of gold really loves it though so I have them at the back of the borders on mass and have done for the last five years.