Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) Now Flowering In the Garden

07/30/2008
With the end of July and the advent of hot weather, our tansy plants in the cutting garden have begun to flower. The bright yellow, button like blooms contrast strongly with their dark green, pinnate foliage, and make excellent long lasting cut flowers for bouquets. Tansy was historically used as a strewing herb, largely because it contains thujone, an insect repellant. In England, tansy was also used as a cleansing herb after the Lenten fast in medieval times, and as a symbol of the bitter Passover herbs. A bitter, acrid herb with a pungent aroma, tansy was also used to expel roundworms. A very hardy perennial, tansy plants do well in sunny, well drained locations. They are freeze hardy to Zone 6.