How to Grow and Harvest Chamomile
by
LA Murano
2 Materials
To look at my garden you wouldn't know that I once had a hard time growing chamomile! I spent two years fighting to grow a few spindly little plants that only produced a few flowers each. It was so sad. Now my garden overflows with it every year. I was simply growing it wrong! I had no idea how to grow chamomile.
Luckily I figured out the one trick to growing chamomile and now that I figured it out, I don't need it anymore! Because once you get a few chamomile plants growing well in your garden...they drop enough seeds every year to come back again, and again and again.
The two most popular types of chamomile are Roman Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis) and German Chamomile (Matricaria recutita). They have somewhat similar properties but I decided to grow German chamomile. German chamomile is a taller annual plant verses the shorter perennial Roman chamomile. For my complete growing method click right here.
Pick chamomile after the morning dew has dried off. I like to harvest them before noon. I simply pinch off the flower heads but you can cut them with scissors.
To dry chamomile for storage, you can spread it out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and set it in a dry area like the top of the refrigerator. Your chamomile should be dry in a week or two. Since chamomile seems to flower a lot at one time, I sometimes hurry things along by using my dehydrator.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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