A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 wormwood

I bought a small wormwood plant in a variety pack of herbs. Could someone please tell me what it can be used for? I don't find that it has a particular scent, is it edible or useful for cooking? The flowers aren't particularly impressive, and it got much larger than I expected. Other than using it to fill in space, what is it's purpose?

Is it a soft gray plant? Feathery?
Don't eat it, it's toxic.
It's used as a bug repellant and was used in an alcoholic drink which is now illegal.
That is, if you have the wormwood I know.
I think there's another one but I'm not sure.

Mine almost looks like parsley in the shape of the leaves and is a light green rather than a grey. Of course mine are only one growing season old this year. Hopefully I'll be able to pot some up to take with me. I just don't know where I will put them lol. So many wonderful plants.

The tag from the nursery calls it "Sweet Annie or Sweet Wormwood" then it just gives growing instructions--likes full sun, etc. Can't find much about it on the net. If it doesn't come back next year, I won't be disappointed.

Richter's catalog to the rescue!

Here it is:

Sweet Annie Wormwood Artemisia annua
(Qing-guo: Sweet Annie) Sweet-scented Chinese herb. Anti-malarial properties, attributed to the compound artemisinin; shown to be very effective.

Annual / medicinal / dried production / aromatic; cosmetic

Amy, if it produced seeds, I'd like some if you are interested in trading at all.

Lorena

Oh Lorena! I'm so sorry! I just yanked it out last week! I didn't notice it having any seeds. It never got flowers of any sort and it didn't have a fragrance. It just got big and bushy and crowded my lavender. That's probably the one and only time I have ever been ruthless about a growing thing because I love them all. Oh well. We'll have to try to trade another time!

Amy