Sweet Flag
Acorus calamus. ARACEAE.
Planting and Growing Sweet Flag
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow sweet flag in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of sweet flag
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for sweet flag
- Season of bloom and planting time for sweet flag
- When, how deep, and where to plant sweet flag
- How to plant sweet flag
- Watering, fertilizing, care and pests or diseases of sweet flag
- Landscape and container uses of sweet flag
- Comments about sweet flag and its features
Growing Sweet Flag
Several cultivars of upright and arching, rhizomatous, deciduous, aquatic perennial herbs, to 6 ft. (1.8 m) tall and wide. Smooth, bright green, striped, or variegated, long, narrow, iris- or grasslike, ribbed, fragrant leaves, to 5 ft. (1.5 m) long.
See also Japanese sweet flag, Acorus gramineus, a closely related species with similar care needs.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Insignificant greenish brown flowers when rooted in water; flower stalk is shorter than leaves.
Best Climates
Hardy. Zones 3–10.
Soil Type and Fertility
Very moist, well-drained humus or, in water features, shallow-depth marginal or shoreline sites. Fertility: Rich. 6.0–8.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Spring in full sun, 3 ft. (90 cm) apart, or submerged to 6 in. (15 cm).
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist. Fertilize annually in spring. Divide when crowded. Propagate by division, seed.
About This Plant
Good choice for accents, borders in boggy soil or water features. Rhizome is a source of the medicinal extract, calamus. Pest and disease resistant.