How to Grow Chamomile from Seed: Sowing and Harvest Tips
By Paul Smith, pemdasgarden.com
Few plants are as simple and satisfying to grow as chamomile. Scatter the dust-like seeds, keep them moist, and within a couple of months you will have a froth of feathery foliage studded with sweet, apple-scented daisy flowers — ready to harvest for calming herbal tea. German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), the most common type grown from seed, is an annual that blooms the same season you sow it and then obligingly self-sows, often returning on its own the following spring.
What You'll Love About Growing Chamomile
Chamomile is fast: flowers suitable for harvest can appear just six to eight weeks after sowing. The blooms — small white petals around a golden center — are lovely in their own right, and dried they make the classic bedtime tea found in kitchens everywhere. Bees and beneficial insects adore the flowers, the plants ask for almost no care, and a single planting can turn into a self-renewing patch. It also grows happily in containers, edging beds, and even as a fragrant lawn alternative in light-traffic spots.
Find chamomile and more in our flower seed collection.
How to Sow Chamomile Seeds
Timing
Start seeds indoors 3 to 4 weeks before your last frost, or direct sow as soon as the soil can be worked in spring. Chamomile germinates in cool conditions — even soil temperatures as low as 45 to 55°F — so there is no need to wait for warm weather. In mild climates, a late-summer sowing gives a fall crop.
Sowing Depth
This is the critical detail: chamomile seeds are tiny and need light to germinate. Scatter them over the soil surface and press them gently into the surface, or cover with no more than 1/16 to 1/8 inch of fine soil. Burying them is the most common reason for failure. Mist the surface to settle them in rather than watering hard, which can wash them away or bury them.
Soil Temperature
Aim for 55 to 68°F. Seedlings usually appear within 7 to 14 days. Keep the seed bed evenly moist — never soggy, never dry — until germination, since the shallow seeds dry out quickly.
Light and Spacing
Give chamomile full sun for the heaviest bloom, though it tolerates part shade. Thin seedlings to about 6 to 8 inches apart once they are an inch or two tall; crowded plants compete and mildew more easily. Mature plants reach 15 to 30 inches tall with a soft, fern-like habit. Any average, well-drained garden soil works — chamomile is not picky about fertility.
Caring for Chamomile Plants
Watering. Keep young plants consistently moist. Once growing strongly, German chamomile handles short dry spells, but regular watering during drought keeps the flowers coming. Water at the base when you can.
Feeding. Chamomile needs little to no fertilizer. In fact, overly rich soil produces lots of leaf at the expense of flowers. A lean soil gives you the best bloom.
Encouraging more blooms. This is the pleasant part of chamomile care: the more flowers you pick, the more the plant produces. Harvest regularly and snip off any blooms past their prime. You can also trim back leggy growth to encourage the foliage to form a dense, bushy mat.
Self-sowing. If you leave some flower heads to mature and drop seed, chamomile will usually reseed itself and return next year. Wonderful — unless you want it contained, in which case harvest diligently and pull volunteers where you don't want them.
Harvesting and Drying Chamomile
Pick flowers when they are fully open, ideally in the morning after the dew has dried, when their scent is strongest. Snip just the flower heads. To dry, spread them in a single layer on a screen or tray in a warm, well-ventilated spot out of direct sunlight, stirring occasionally. They are ready when the centers are hard and crumble easily — usually after several days. Store in an airtight jar in a cool, dark place, where they keep for up to a year. Dried flowers are more concentrated than fresh, so a little goes a long way in a cup of tea.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Burying the seeds. Surface sow or barely cover — light is required for germination.
- Letting the seed bed dry out. Shallow seeds desiccate fast; mist regularly until seedlings are up.
- Transplanting too late. Chamomile dislikes root disturbance once established, so move seedlings while small or direct sow.
- Never harvesting. Unpicked plants slow down; regular picking triggers flush after flush of blooms.
- Letting it seed everywhere. Self-sowing is a feature until it isn't — deadhead if you want it to stay put.
Your Own Tea Garden Starts Here
Chamomile might be the easiest useful plant you will ever grow: a pinch of seed, a sunny spot, and a few weeks of patience yields months of fragrant flowers for the teapot. Pair it with a longer-lived pollinator perennial by reading our guide "How to Grow Echinacea from Seed" — the two look beautiful side by side.
Related Growing Guides
Planting times vary by climate and region — adjust sowing dates for your USDA zone and local frost dates.
Ready to grow? Browse our chamomile seeds collection and start your own tea-garden patch — shop chamomile seeds here.
Free planning tools: put this guide to work with the Seed Starting Calculator and Planting Calendar on our Gardening Tools hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does chamomile seed take to germinate?
Usually 7 to 14 days. The tiny seeds need light to germinate, so press them onto the soil surface rather than burying them.
What is the difference between German and Roman chamomile?
German chamomile is the annual type most often grown from seed for tea; Roman chamomile is a low perennial more often used as a ground cover.
When should I harvest chamomile flowers?
Pick blooms when the white petals are flat or just beginning to droop back from the golden center — that is peak flavor for drying.
Will chamomile come back next year?
German chamomile self-sows generously. Let a few flower heads go to seed and it will usually return on its own.