How to Grow Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace
Caption

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota) is also known as wild carrot.

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Olko1975
Botanical Name
Daucus carota
Plant Type
Sun Exposure
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Hardiness Zone
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Planting, Growing, and Caring for Queen Anne's Lace

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A long-lasting filler for floral bouquets, this flower—with its umbrella-shaped flower clusters—can add interest to your garden and invite pollinators. It’s an ancestor of the garden carrot! Learn how to plant, grow, and care for Queen Anne’s lace.

About Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s lace is often called “wild carrot,” and if you’ve ever let a carrot in the garden stay over winter to flower the next year, you’ll see why. The foliage looks similar, and the plant has a taproot like our garden carrots. Our tasty orange vegetables had their roots, so to speak, in Daucus carota, also known as Queen Anne’s lace. In fact, those root veggies we love are actually a subspecies, D. carota var. sativus.

Gardeners grow this biennial for its lacy flower heads, not the roots. 

  • During the first year, it makes a basal rosette of leaves and focuses on storing energy. 
  • During the second year, the flowers bloom in late spring and early summer. They begin as a round, goblet-shaped gathering of stems before opening to an umbel, with hundreds of florets on each. 
  • After pollination, the flower closes again to resemble a bird’s nest. 
Queen’s Anne Lace is an excellent choice for cut flower. It’s long-lasting and adds contrast. 

The entire plant looks similar to dill and is often mistaken for other plants, including poison hemlock, false Queen Anne’s lace, giant hogweed, angelica, or cow parsnip.

Note: Queen Anne’s lace is considered an invasive or noxious weed in some areas of the country. Check with your local agricultural office and your state’s invasive species list. If Daucus carota is a no-go in your area, consider False Queen Anne’s lace, Ammi visagna or Ammi majus, which are less weedy and invasive. 

Planting

Select a site with good drainage and full sun for the best blooms. This plant doesn’t mind poor, less fertile soils (part of the reason it’s invasive in many areas) and will tolerate most conditions.

The mature plants are susceptible to windthrow. Avoid unsheltered locations or local wind tunnel effects, such as between a shed and the garage.

When to Plant Queen Anne’s Lace

Direct seed Queen Anne’s lace in spring after the last frosts or start them indoors 4-6 weeks prior to transplanting. Southern gardeners can also sow them in autumn. The seedlings establish more quickly in cooler temperatures.

How to Plant Queen Anne’s Lace

  • Cold treat the seeds for 2 weeks at 35-40℉.
  • Prepare the bed or seed tray. If planting outdoors, removing the weeds and raking the surface smooth is sufficient.
  • Sow seeds shallowly. Instead of making trenches or holes, sprinkle the seeds in rows or into cells and lightly cover them.
  • Keep moist until germination.
  • Thin seedlings when the first true leaves begin to appear.
  • If transplanting, harden off and then use a final plant spacing of 6-12” between plants.
Queen Anne's Lace colorful
Queen Anne’s lace in the garden beds. Credit: Shutterstock

Growing

Queen Anne’s lace won’t need much help from you to grow. After seedlings are established, they prefer slightly drier conditions and often won’t need watering. No fertilizer is necessary. Depending on soil conditions, the stems can flop over after a heavy rain or storm. A little preemptive staking goes a long way toward keeping these tall plants upright and out of garden aisles.

To prevent Queen Anne’s lace from escaping the garden, snip the flower heads as soon as the blooms fade to prevent them from forming mature seeds. For cut flower use, harvest umbels when they have almost fully opened. If they’re cut early, they often wilt.

Harvesting

The lacy flower heads and crisp green-white color provide an invaluable filler for bouquets. 

Queen Anne’s lace is also very productive. The more you pick, the more it flowers!

Please note: Be careful as the sap in the stems can cause contact dermatitis in sensitive individuals. Wear gloves while harvesting.

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Wit and Wisdom

  • Many stories claim the common name for this plant comes in some fashion from Queen Anne II of England, who was skilled at lacework. The drop of red in the center of the flower is symbolic of her pricked finger while she was tatting.
  • Foragers harvest and eat the taproot, which is edible, claiming it has a carrot-like flavor. 
  • Keep up with deadheading before the plant sets seed. Trying to root out an escaped patch can be a lot of work. 
  • This plant is potentially poisonous to livestock.

Pests/Diseases

  • Queen Anne’s lace rarely has serious pest or disease problems. 
About The Author

Andy Wilcox

Andy Wilcox is a flower farmer and master gardener with a passion for soil health, small producers, forestry, and horticulture. Read More from Andy Wilcox