The perennial herbs are re-growing quickly this early Spring. Some of our returning herbs are in the vegetable garden or at the edge of it. Others are in a herb bed in front of the house that receives more sun than those in the garden.
The herb I’m missing the most is rosemary. Gotta find a rosemary plant this year. It’s one that doesn’t start well from seed, so I’ll be combing through nursery aisles looking for a plant instead.
All of our herbs are easily accessed from the kitchen and that’s something to keep in mind when you’re planting herbs this year. If your herbs are way in the back of the backyard, or somehow not so accessible, then it’s likely you’ll do without them in your cooking. Our herbs are but a few steps away from the kitchen, so even in the middle of cooking dinner I can walk out there, snip a few springs of oregano or thyme and be back inside before anything gets too crispy.
So far this Spring I’ve used the tarragons, parsley, thyme, chives and lemon balm. What herbs have you used from your re-growing herb garden?
German chamomile plants that were grown from seed last year have survived the mild winter. Last year around the middle of May chamomile seeds were sown directly outdoors. The very small seeds were sprinkled on the soil and tamped down. Other chamomile seeds that were planted in pots indoors didn’t survive.
The seeds of chamomile, Chamomile boldegold also known as Matricaria recutita and Matricaria chamomilla, are so small that thousands of them were held inside a 1 x 2 inch plastic zip-bag that was itself inside of a labeled seed packet. Surely, the plastic bag was necessary to keep the tiny seeds from falling out of the standard seed packet or paper envelope.
Chamomile boldegold seeds.
(Click photo to see a larger image.)
The instructions indicated that germination is aided by freezing conditions, which may explain why only two plants grew from the pinches of seeds that were sprinkled in late Spring. Flowers that were allowed to drop on the ground last year should contribute to a larger crop this year. If you’re going to try to sow chamomile seeds indoors, put the seeds in the freezer overnight for more germination success.
The bright green foliage is bipinnate, where the leaflets themselves have leaflets. The segments that make up the leaflets are very narrow. Leaf stems of chamomile are round, but hollow. Our mild weather probably had something to do with the chamomile plants surviving the winter. Most sources claim this plant to be an annual, but under the right conditions chamomile is a perennial.
Chamomile leaves re-growing from last year in front of the tulips. Photo taken 30 Mar 2012.
Chamomile is a fragrant little plant. The leaves have the smell of pineapple and the flowers smell like apples. The herbal tea we make from the flowers is gently fragrant of green apples.
Flowers are like small daisies, composites with white ray flowers and yellow disc flowers in the center. The disc forms a dome in maturing chamomile blooms.
The whole plant seems to appreciate cooler weather. The scorching heat of last summer made the plants grow very slowly. These chamomile plants were still producing flowers in the cool autumn days until frost halted their activity.
Flowering chamomile in the autumn. Photo taken 11 Oct 2011.
Chamomile is native to Europe, but it’s now naturalized nearly everywhere else. In the United States it’s said to be found growing along old fence rows and in fields. We have it growing near the house because we planted it there. I haven’t seen it in the wild, yet, but I’m curious if others have? If so, leave a comment and let us all know!
