Thinking about Wormwood

I have been planting artemesia in flowering pots for more than 20 years.  I love the pale grey-green color, the texture from the serrated leaves, and the way both the texture and the color show off other flowers. I also appreciate its shady past as a herb associated with witches.  One of artemesia's common names is wormwood and it is considered to have some medicinal properties. A year ago I decided to plant artemesia in my garden in Scottsdale.  It spread about 4 feet and looked quite sumptuous at the foot of cacti, surrounding verbena, and nestled among some Spanish lavender.  I was surprised to see artemesia do so well in the insufferable heat of the Valley of the Sun.  It even managed to keep some color from June through September then began to grow again in October.

When I pulled up some lambs ear in our summer garden by the Hood Canal in Kitsap County, WA, I replaced it with artemesia as well.  Instead of keeping confined to a dainty 12 inches high as it did in Scottsdale, the wormwood shot up and took over the front garden, overwhelming the nearby miniature roses, the birds nest spruce, and the alstromeria.

Now I'm plotting spring improvements.  One idea is to transplant the artemesia to the street side of our virburnum hedge which is now about 10 feet tall.  It will look fabulous near the road framing our little footbridge, the mounds of lavendar, and the bronze carex that is looking fantastic despite my husband's dubious looks when I bought the "dead" grass.