How to Grow Chamomile

Although chamomile is a favorite herb for making tea, it's also a charming annual (grows just one year) flower that's perfect for cottage and other casual gardens.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Garden Spades
• Seeds
• Mulch
• Plants
• Fertilizers
• Compost Makers
• Garden Trowels

1. Buy healthy, green plants with no signs of wilting or disease. Plants should be stocky with plenty of leaves. It's actually a plus if they don't have any flowers - they'll divert their early energy into root development rather than flowering.
2. Choose a site in full sun with average to rich, well-drained soil.
3. Work in plenty of compost.
4. Plant seedlings in spring or mid fall, spacing them 6 inches apart for a carpetlike ground cover effect, or 18 inches apart in herb and flower gardens.
5. Keep soil evenly moist. Mulching is a good idea.
6. Trim faded flowers or shear the plant occasionally to promote new blooms.
7. Fertilize every four to six weeks, or work in a slow-release fertilizer at planting time.
8. Tear out faded annual types of chamomile at the end of the season, once frost fells them. Cut back perennial types to just 2 or 3 inches.

Tips & Warnings

• Chamomile comes in both annual (grows just once a year) and perennial (returns year after year) types. German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is the annual type; Roman chamomile (Anthemis nobilis) is the perennial type.
• Growing just 3 to 9 inches high, chamomile spreads about 24 inches, making it useful as a ground cover as well. It covers itself from early to mid summer in pretty yellow and white flowers, which can be made into chamomile tea - reputed to soothe upset stomachs and digestive systems as well as calm the nerves.
• Chamomile also likes its soil moist but not wet and does well between pavers and stepping-stones.
• Chamomile performs well where temperatures in summer do not regularly reach 100 degrees F.

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