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WORMWOOD AND SOUTHERNWOOD: GROWING CONDITIONS
Wormwood and southernwood will also grow well in the sooty grimy atmosphere of the cities, especially in industrial towns where the chemically-saturated air seems almost beneficial to these plants. Our ecologists might soon be handing out free plants of southernwood to provide a green barrier for the people who have to live in such areas. Seriously though, these Artemisias may hold the key to establishing a more breathable air in such conditions, as they absorb, recycle and purify the chemical-laden atmosphere.
Poor, crusted soil, and even rocky conditions, will not deter southernwood. It will withstand dryness, but naturally grows more green and thick with sufficient water. In very cold or frosty areas it may drop some of its leaves in the winter, but will shoot again with fresh young green when the warm weather returns.
Germination from seed can be difficult. I have never yet found just which sowing conditions it does like, trying many different approaches and seed from various sources: but the germination rate was always so low as to be quite disheartening. Woody stem cuttings are a far easier way to gain new plants. Take them in late spring or early summer, with a “heel” of the old stem attached.
Wormwood and southernwood are recommended to be grown in poultry runs for shade. The birds will not scratch at them and their insect-repelling oils will keep lice and other vermin away from the enclosure.
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