Chamomile Through the Year: What to Do at Each Stage

The shape of the year

German chamomile packs a whole life into one season. From a spring sowing it takes six to eight weeks to reach flowering size, flowers for six to ten weeks, then sets seed and dies. Everything you do is timed against that, and the single most important thing is that the picking stage demands attention every two or three days for two months. If you cannot commit to that stretch, grow fewer plants and pick them properly rather than growing many and picking them occasionally.

Roman chamomile runs on a different rhythm entirely: an evergreen mat that needs weeding in spring, shearing two or three times, and protection from heavy traffic in winter. The two schedules below are kept separate for that reason.

Sowing and the seedling weeks

Sow as soon as the soil is workable and above about 50F (10C). Chamomile does not want warmth to germinate and an early sowing gives the plants a long run before summer heat shortens the flowering. Surface sow onto a firmed bed, never cover the seed, and keep the top layer damp with row cover and a fine mist until the seedlings show at seven to fourteen days.

The seedling weeks are the fragile part of the year. Take the row cover off the day you see the first shoots, check at dawn for slugs if a row disappears, and thin in two stages: to two inches (5 cm) at two true leaves, then to the final eight to ten inches (20 to 25 cm) once the plants are three inches (8 cm) tall. Do not skip the second thinning. It feels drastic and it is the difference between a bed that flowers heavily and one that mildews.

1. Check the soil temperature, not the calendar Push a soil thermometer in at two inches (5 cm) in the morning. Anything from 50 to 68F (10 to 20C) is fine. This matters more than any date, and it is what makes the same advice work in either hemisphere.
2. Consider an autumn sowing as well Sown in early autumn, chamomile makes a small rosette, overwinters and flowers several weeks earlier than a spring sowing. Where winters are hard it needs a cloche or a sheltered spot, but the early crop is worth it.
3. Sow a second batch four weeks after the first Two sowings a month apart extend the picking season noticeably, because the second comes into flower as the first flush is thinning. This is the simplest way to double your yield without doubling the bed.

The picking flush

From the first flowers, chamomile needs going over every two or three days for the whole flush. Pick when the white petals are flat and the yellow center is still low, before the petals fold back. Pick mid morning once the dew has dried. Get the flowers onto a drying screen the same day, spread in a single layer, in shade with air moving.

This is also the stretch where problems appear. Check the growing tips for aphids each time you pick, cut out congested growth in humid weather, and support the plants before a storm rather than after. A bed inspected every three days during picking never develops a problem you cannot deal with in a few minutes.

Record the date of your first flower and the date the flush thins out. Two seasons of those two dates tell you precisely when to make your second sowing so it fills the gap, which no general guidance can do for your particular garden.

End of season and clearing up

When the flush thins and the plants start yellowing from the base, stop picking. Decide then between two endings. If you want to control where it grows next year, save seed from four or five of the best plants and pull everything else out before it sheds. If you would rather let it look after itself, leave the last flowers to drop their seed, then pull the spent plants in autumn while shaking them over the bed.

Either way, clear the dead plants rather than leaving them standing. Old chamomile stems are hollow, they collapse into a wet mat over winter and they carry mildew spores through to the following spring. Take out anything that was diseased and bin it rather than composting it.

If you leave the bed to self sow, do not dig it over in spring. Surface seed buried by cultivation will never come up, and one thorough fork over can end a self sowing patch that had run for years.

The Roman chamomile year

A creeping chamomile mat has a much quieter calendar. In spring, weed it thoroughly while the growth is still open enough to reach into, and brush a mixture of grit and sharp sand into any thin patches to encourage the stems to root down. Divide and replant rooted pieces now if you are extending the area.

Through summer, shear it over with hand shears at about two inches (5 cm) after the flowering flush, and again in late summer if it has grown long. Keep off it when the ground is soft. In autumn, patch the last bare spots with divisions while the soil is still warm, and through winter simply keep fallen leaves swept off and foot traffic light, because wet crowns bruise easily and the resulting bare patches take a full season to close.

Keep a simple map of where you sowed or planted each year, with the dates. Chamomile moves around on its own by self sowing, and after two seasons it becomes genuinely difficult to remember which stand you sowed deliberately and which arrived by itself.