“Chamomile is put to divers and sundry uses, both for pleasure and profit, both for the sick and the sound, in bathing to comfort and strengthen the sound and to ease the pain of the diseased.”

So wrote Parkinson back in 1656.  Chamomile is one of the oldest favorites among garden herbs.  The Egyptians dedicated chamomile to the sun and worshiped it above all other herbs for its healing properties.  No plant was better known to the country folk of old.  It has been grown for centuries in English gardens for its use as a common domestic medicine.  In the gardening book of 1638, William Lawson wrote of “walks, having seats and banks of Camomile – all this to delight the mind and bring health to the body.”  One of the aromatic, strewing herbs of the Middle Ages, chamomile was often purposely planted as green walkways in their gardens.  It has been said, “Like a camomile bed - the more it is trodden; the more it will spread."  Once firmly established, a chamomile lawn may be mowed with a lawn-mower with blades set fairly high. 

The double-flowered form was already well known in the sixteenth century.  It was introduced into Germany from Spain about the close of the Middle Ages.  Chamomile was largely cultivated before the war in Belgium, France and Saxony and also in England.  Even nursery rhymes include mentions of this herbal brew – remember Peter Rabbit whose mother soothed his aching head with a cup of chamomile tea?  In Boulder, Colorado, you can find German chamomile naturalized along roadsides and in the cracks of sidewalks, where seeds have "escaped" from Celestial Seasonings, according to Stephen Foster.  A common folk saying in Czech-Slovakia is, “an individual should always bow before the curative powers of the chamomile plant.”  The Germans have a phrase to describe it: Alles Zutraut, meaning “capable of anything.”

For centuries chamomile has been reputed to have gentle healing properties.  There is a German Chamomile; there is an English chamomile; there is also a Scotch or a wild chamomile.  We’ll be looking at this apple-scented herb, helping you to become more familiar and make it a welcomed addition to your herb garden.

To further confuse you, English or Roman Chamomile, formerly known as Anthemis noblis is now known as Chamaemelum nobile.  Anthemis nobilis (renamed Chamaemelum nobile) is a slow-growing perennial, creeping or trailing, never raising its tufts of leaves and flowers up higher than a foot or two.  Its root is perennial; the stems, hairy and freely branched, are covered with leaves which are divided into thread-like segments.  This gives the whole plant a feathery appearance.  In its native habitat of England and other parts of Europe, the blooms appear in the later days of summer and are borne aloft on long erect stalks.  Each flower perches on the end of a long stem.  The flowers have a yellow center with an outer fringe of white petals - not unlike our familiar daisy but much smaller in size.

The whole plant is downy and grayish-green in color.  With a distinct fragrance of apples, the fresh plant is strongly scented.  The name "chamomile" derives from the Greek - kamai (on the ground) and melon (an apple.) The Spaniards call it "Manzanilla" which signified "a little apple" and gave the same name to one of their lightest sherries which is flavored with this plant.  The flower-heads of the Chamaemelum nobile are considered the most valuable for distillation of the oil.  Chamomile nobilis var. flore-pleno is the double-flowered variety.

English or Roman Chamomile is a perennial native to western Europe, northward to Northern Ireland.  Roman Chamomile likes full sun and a slightly acid-to-neutral soil with good drainage.  It can be started from seeds, cuttings or by root division.  My patch has remained green throughout our mild winter but it does not tolerate our hot, dry summers.  An interesting note for companion gardeners: camomile (either spelling is correct) is considered the plant’s physician.  Do you have a droopy, sickly-looking plant in the garden.  Place a chamomile by it and chances are good it will recover.