Chamomile has beautiful gold and white daisy-like flowers, feathery leaves and a lovely fragrance of apples.
Plants are 12 to 24 inches in height.
Chamomile is easy to grow from seed and blooms from May to August.
If you are picking chamomile flowers for tea, you will be able to get multiple harvests from the same plant. And just a few plants will give you a good supply of flowers.
A bit more:
This gentle herb is a safe and potent medicinal. Gentle does not mean less effective.
Chamomile’s biochemical composition includes the important flavonoids, Apigenin and Quercetin. These flavonoids possess a number of medicinal benefits, including anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties (Ullah et al 2020). Many researchers have reported that M. recutita has pharmacological properties including:
- Antimicrobial (Batista et al., 2014)
- Anti-inflammatory (Batista et al., 2014)
- Antioxidative (Sebai et al., 2014)
- Antispasmodic (Farideh et al., 2010)
- Antiviral (Koch et al., 2008), and
- Sedative activities (McKay and Blumberg, 2006)
A cup of chamomile tea is a cup of goodness!
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How to Plant: Ease of Germination: Easy. Direct seed in mid-to-late May. Seeds need light to germinate, which means sow the seeds on top of the soil, press in and cover lightly with soil. Keep moist until germination. Chamomile has a deep root system and does best in the garden or planted in a larger container (5 gallon or so).
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How to Harvest: Harvest chamomile flowers at any stage. You can even harvest chamomile flowers after the petals have fallen off the golden centres. Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar has a good idea about how to pick the small flowers: run your fingers like a rake through the flowers to harvest the heads, pulling them up between your fingers into the palm of your hand. This makes harvesting a faster process than picking the flowers one-by-one. Dry flowers for tea. You can also use fresh.
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How to Use: Use 1 tsp dried or 2 tsp fresh flowers for 1 cup of tea. Steep for 5 minutes and then remove flowers.
Location: Sun, Partial Sun
Life cycle: Annual
Usable Parts: Flowers (dried, fresh)
Uses: Tea
Height: 12 to 24 inches
