German Chamomile

Sowing: German Chamomile is raised from seed, either direct-sown outdoors near the last frost date or started indoors six to eight weeks earlier for transplanting; because larger plants resist transplanting well, seedlings are best grown in individual containers or moved while still small. The seed is tiny and needs light to germinate, so it is surface sown and pressed rather than buried, with transplants commonly spaced about eight inches apart in rows roughly eighteen inches apart.

Siting: This plant does best in full sun with light, sandy or loamy, well-drained soil, and it tolerates poor soil, so rich, heavy, or wet ground is avoided. Its roots are shallow and spreading, so the upper soil is kept lightly moist rather than saturated, with irrigation especially important while seedlings are establishing.

German Chamomile has few serious insect or disease problems and is not favored by deer; aphids are the main pest to watch for and can usually be washed off with water. It may also develop fungal problems such as powdery mildew, and its presence near vegetables is valued because it repels cucumber beetles.

Handling the plant can trigger allergic skin reactions or oral swelling in people with ragweed allergies, and the plant is considered toxic to dogs, cats, and horses.

Flowers are picked at near full bloom for the best quality, snipped as whole flower heads from the stem, and can be used either fresh or dried. Careful drying is needed to avoid discoloration or heating of the harvested flowers, and if not deadheaded the plant readily self-sows from ripened seed.

Culinary: The flowers are the source of chamomile tea, one of the most widely consumed herbal teas, and are also used fresh or dried for garnishes.

Medicinal: Across many cultures, including in Eastern and Southern Europe and in Mexican and Puerto Rican folk traditions, dried German Chamomile flowers have long been used as a traditional remedy, a practice with roots traced to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and continuing through the Middle Ages.

Ornamental and other uses: The long-blooming, fragrant flowers make it a garden plant for herb beds, borders, rock gardens, and cottage gardens, and they attract bees and other pollinating insects. The flowers are also distilled for an essential oil used in perfumes and cosmetics, used to make potpourri and dried arrangements, and used to produce a yellow-brown fabric dye.

German Chamomile is native to Macaronesia, North Africa, and temperate Eurasia, extending east to Indo-China, with a broad natural range across southern and eastern Europe and western Asia. It has since become naturalized on disturbed ground, roadsides, fields, and meadows across many other regions, including North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Its spread into cultivation reached South Asia during the Mughal period, with recorded cultivation in Lucknow for about two centuries, introduction to Punjab roughly three centuries ago, and later planting in Jammu in 1957.