CAMOMILE PLANTING AND GROWTH

Before planting a camomile lawn, weed the area thoroughly, if possible putting the top few inches of soil through a fine sieve to get out any previous grass roots or weed roots or bulbs. The stems of camomile grow close together above and on the ground, so weeds can be difficult to eradicate. Camomile lawns can be mowed. Set the blades somewhat higher than normal in order to cut the leaves but miss the stems. Don’t forget to put the clippings onto the compost heap.

The flowers are a lovely yellow-centred white daisy shape, on short stems, and bloom all spring and most of summer, but the plants do not flower until their second year of growth. The yellow centre is the part from which the essential oil is extracted ; but in commercial use the whole flower (not the stem) is dried with as little bruising as possible. The flowers should be picked off from the stems by hand carefully or with tweezers, on a dry day. They dry even better if the previous two or three days have been dry, too. Picking in wet or very humid weather will result in brownish, discoloured flowers of very little use at all.

The herb can be raised from seed sown in the spring, but will take a little longer this way than by the usual root-division method. It is quite easy to lift a small clump and separate it into rooted pieces for setting out in a lawn or an edging patch in the garden. Plant these runners about 12 inches apart and, with the first growing season over, your lawn should be almost covered. You can top-dress lightly in summer if soil has been washed away by rain or watering and the stems are too far above the ground. This light top-dressing each season will help thicken up the growth.