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Sweet Annie has to be one of my favorite herbs to use for drying and in herbal wreaths. Several other names for Sweet Annie include Sweet Wormwood, Chinese Fragrant Fern and Artemisia Annua. While most other Artemisia’s have a silvery gray foliage, Sweet Annie has a feathery green foliage. It holds it’s color very well when dried.
Easily grown from seed, if left to go to seed in the fall, Sweet Annie will pop up in your garden year after year. Just sow your seeds after any danger of frost is past. This will grow best in a sunny location, but does not need any special soil. This will grow up to six feet in height, so be sure to plant near the back of a flower bed. I have also used Sweet Annie as a background plant in container gardening.
To harvest Sweet Annie, just cut the stems off close to the ground, if you wish to dry your herbs to use in potpourris, just bunch the stems together, tying a group together at the base, then hang upside down in a warm dark place. I generally use my Sweet Annie fresh, just after picking in wreaths and other groupings. This herb seems to keep its scent much longer than any other herb. I have taken wreaths apart after several years and the Sweet Annie’s fragrance is still very much the same as when fresh picked.
A word of warning though. People with allergies may have trouble working with Sweet Annie. If you discover any problems in this department, spraying a little hair spray on the greens before handling seems to take care of the problem.
As for using Sweet Annie, as I mentioned, I like to use this herb in herbal wreaths and other arrangements, but this herb is very versatile. It can be used in place of Babies Breath or any fern in dried or fresh floral arrangements. Another idea would be to place bunches of Sweet Annie on a grapevine or straw wreath (the Sweet Annie can be trimmed down from the full length plants, by using just the branches that sprout off the main stem), wire the bunches to the base, then decorate with dried flowers, such as roses or straw flowers.
Another way to use these plants is to make an actual wreath out of the fairly heavy, woody main stems. Just cut your Sweet Annie, you will need to choose stems that are similar in height or trim your stems down to get a grouping that is the same length. Start by wiring the base of all of the stems together. Now bend the stems around into a circle, wiring together every 6 to 8 inches to hold the shape. The branches and feathery foliage make a beautiful, natural looking wreath all on it’s own.
Sweet Annie also makes a wonderful smelling addition to sachet bags. Start out with a small piece of tulle or muslin, place a bit of crushed Sweet Annie, Lavender and Rosemary, in the center of your fabric. Now just tie up with a bit of ribbon. Place these little sachet bags in your drawers and linen closets to keep your clothes and linens smelling wonderful.
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