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German chamomile is a slender, branching annual herb with feathery, finely divided leaves and a mass of small daisy flowers from early summer. Each flower has white rays around a yellow centre that rises into a hollow cone as it ages, while the rays bend backwards. The whole plant smells sweetly of apples when crushed. The flowers are the part used: picked when fully open and dried, they make chamomile tea. It grows fast from seed in any sunny, well-drained spot, and it seeds itself around so readily that one sowing usually lasts for years.
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Toxic to cats and dogs if eaten.
It can make cats and dogs unwell, so keep it out of their reach.
If your pet has eaten some, contact your vet.
Source: NC State Extension
Pick the flowers every few days, on a dry morning, when the white rays are flat and before they droop. Regular picking keeps the plant flowering for weeks. Spread the flower heads in a single layer in a warm, shaded, airy place until they are crisp, then store them in a closed jar.
Use about a teaspoon of dried flowers, or a small handful of fresh ones, per cup. Pour on water just off the boil, cover and leave for five minutes, then strain. Covering the cup keeps the scented oils in the tea.
Scatter the fine seed on the surface of raked soil in spring or early autumn and press it in without covering it, since it needs light to germinate. Thin the seedlings to about 20cm apart. Autumn sowings flower earlier the following year.
No. Lawn chamomile is Roman chamomile, Chamaemelum nobile, a low, creeping perennial. German chamomile is an upright annual. Both are used for tea, but the German kind is the one usually grown for it.
Crush a flower: true chamomile smells of apples. Cut the yellow centre in half and it is hollow, while the scentless mayweed has a solid centre and no fragrance.
The plants are annuals and die after seeding, but they self-seed freely, so new plants appear nearby each year as long as some flowers are left to ripen and the soil is not mulched heavily.
Yes. Sow a pinch of seed on the surface of a pot of multipurpose compost mixed with a little sand, keep it in full sun and water when the surface dries. Do not feed it.
People who are allergic to plants of the daisy family, such as ragweed, can react to chamomile, and handling the plant can irritate sensitive skin. If that applies to you, avoid it.
