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How to Grow Valerian Plant – Herb

By Annie

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through these links, I may earn a small commission.

Why not grow Valerian? It’s a fragrant perennial that can help with sleeping.

I’ve been growing Valerian in many gardens of my past, well before we moved up here to the Cariboo. It is a wonderful perennial plant, so it dies back in the fall and then grows again in the spring. You can grow them from seed or buy one in a container and transplant it.

I absolutely love the fragrance of Valerian so I just kept dividing existing plants and bringing some along when we moved. I’ve always just planted it again at the new place. I brought some up here and planted them in the flower garden right under the porch.

 

Grow Valerian in any flower bed and the bees will come to the flowers
Grow Valerian and see how the bees are attracted to the heavily scented flowers.

How to Plant Valerian

I try to plant Valerian root close to the house windows or the porch, so we can enjoy the wonderful fragrance. Valerian grows tall, more than 5 feet so it’s a good idea to enclose the plant with a Tomato cage in early Spring to let those tall stems get some extra support. A heavy rain can really damage the plant.

It blooms for about 6 weeks and at the end of the season, Valerian self seeds very easily; just don’t cut all the blooms when they are finished. Let the seed fall on the ground. In spring, some of those seeds will probably germinate and grow.

 

 

Growing Valerian blooming with a bee on the flowers.

 

You can dig up any new plants that pop up and move them to where they will have room to grow. Valerian looks wonderful planted in a mass, so don’t worry about them being crowded – it looks beautiful.

 

A growing Valerian plant in the flower bed with daffodils and goutweed
A growing Valerian plant in the flower bed with daffodils and goutweed.

 

You can see the Valerian growing on the front far right in the photo. It’s right behind the tulips. It won’t take long to shoot up several more feet, then start to bloom.

Some people use Valerian to help them sleep. Wonderful, wonderful…if you have some room, plant one of these!

 

Honey bees on a Valerian flower
Honey bees on a Valerian flower

 

The bees love the flowers and we all know we need as many bees as possible to pollinate our food supply. We actually seed our lawns with Clover as the bees love it so much!

In turn, they pollinate all the food growing in our vegetable gardens. 

 

A Valerian bouquet in a mason jar on the table.
Make a Valerian bouquet and set beside your bed before sleeping.

 

I love cutting a small nosegay and putting it in a mason jar of water. Placed on the nightstand, it is wonderful how the scent fills the room.

Grow Valerian below an opening window to enjoy the incredible fragrance!

 

More flower garden articles:

Ready to landscape? Here’s how to make a flower bed for anywhere in your yard.

The Perfect plants for that shady spot in your yard.

One hour in Fall will give you weeks of color in Spring! Here’s how to plant flower bulbs.

 

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