A lovely yarrow cultivar ‘Appleblossom’ was added to the garden in May and today it is blooming. If unharmed by cold weather and allowed to age gracefully, the flower’s peachy color eventually will fade to cream.

Achillea x 'Appleblossom' (Yarrow)

Galaxy hybrids

In learning about this plant, I found ‘Appleblossom’ being referred to as a Galaxy hybrid. An article on the Chicago Botanic Garden website gave a good explanation of this term (and the rest of the article is interesting as well).

In 1986, the Galaxy hybrids, a group of cultivars with clear, distinctive flower colors, were introduced from Germany.  The original hybrid between Achillea millefolium and A. x taygetea resulted in the cultivars ‘Hoffnung’, ‘The Beacon’, ‘Salmon Beauty’ and ‘Appleblossom’ (Thomas 1990). Since then, other cultivars with improved habits and a broader range of flower colors have joined the original Galaxy hybrids in the market place. (Hawke, 1994)

Reference

Hawke, Richard G. (1994). Plant evaluation notes, a report of cultivated yarrows (achillea). Retrieved November 25, 2011 from http://www.chicagobotanic.org/downloads/planteval_notes/no5_yarrow.pdf