This morning I was worried I had a bee swarm under the house, there was so much buzzing going on. Turns out the bees are crazy for the flowers on our mugwort and are buzzing round in big numbers with full pollen sacs. They are mainly european honey bees, but also our tiny sugar bag bees and some tiny flies, so a real pollinator feast.
The plant came with the property, and the previous owner identified it as a mugwort. There are several plants with that name and this seems to be Artemesia argyi, the chinese mugwort, although it is much taller than the description I have seen and has cream, rather than pale yellow, flowers. If you can identify it I would be glad to hear from you.
It is vigorous, and sends up 3 metre stems even after being cut back several times in the year. It stays straggly even with continued pruning, so it’s very much a background plant for landscaping. It also roots freely from cuttings, so I now have a hedge of it along the chicken pen fence and a plant down in the mid-levels garden. Now that I have plenty I think the original, which is right at the house side of a bed, can come out.
Mugworts and their wormwood relatives have a reputation for keeping pests away with their scent, so I dry the prunings and use them as flooring in the chicken house.
All in all it’s a good utility plant to fill a background spot. You can harvest the leaves for herbal remedies, dry them for the chickens, use them as a screen, or just leave it for the bees.