By Louise Long
For centuries the quintessential English lawn has been a neat expanse of closely mown grass. But British gardeners are increasingly embracing a looser aesthetic: allowing lawns to grow longer, adding colour with spring bulbs, or planting low-maintenance herbs such as creeping thyme and clover. Another option which, like grass, offers uniform evergreen cover, is the chamomile lawn. Unlike grass, however, chamomile is fragrant, cushioning and does not require mowing, which makes it more welcoming to wildlife.
Chamomile has been valued throughout history for its medical, soothing properties. English gardens have, in fact, long featured the chamomile lawn — especially in Elizabethan times, when it was even fashioned into seats. Well known modern examples are few, but include Dilston Physic Garden, Northumberland, the Queen’s Garden seat at Kew, and Buckingham Palace — host to chamomile on the Main Lawn, site of garden parties (main picture, above), as well as in the Rose Garden.
In the past, a chamomile lawn required cutting, but today’s growers favour low-growing and non-flowering varieties, yielding neater, low-fuss lawns. Family-run Morehavens Camomile Nursery was established more than 40 years ago by Lt Col Moore, a friend of Dorothy Sewart, the botanist who discovered the Treneague cultivar at her home in Cornwall, in the 1930s. The company, which is based in Farnham and Winchester, is a specialist grower of both the non-flowering Chamaemelum nobile Treneague and Chamaemelum nobile (Roman chamomile), a darker, dwarf variety, with daisy-like flowers, suitable for chalkier soils or partial shade. Both thrive in full sun, ideally well-drained, sandy or loamy soil, and require regular watering during establishment. The Roman variety will benefit from hand shearing as well as light foot traffic, which encourages lateral growth and releases its aromatic soothing scent.
In March 2020, inspired by the wild chamomile of the Scilly Isles, Robin and Zunetta of Kingsdown, Bristol rejoiced at the delivery of their Treneague chamomile plugs from Morehavens, just as national lockdown was called. Five years on, the lawn surrounds a large square pond in their south-facing rear garden, bordered by espaliered apples, roses and York stone paving.
“We love the smell of the lawn and its softness. My favourite morning activity is to walk barefoot on the lawn, with my coffee in hand,” says Zunetta. Now in the process of selling the eight-bedroom Grade II listed property, on the market for £1.75mn, their only regret is the prospect of leaving it behind so soon. “I will miss it when we move, and I will be planting a new one.”
One gardener not about to part with hers is Penny Brook of Swindon House Farm, Harrogate (part of the National Garden Scheme). Brook’s 15-year-old chamomile lawn sits within a potager, originally planted as 350 plugs into heavy clay, and is partly shaded by an acer. “Yet it thrives and needs very little upkeep,” says Brook.
“I top dress with sharp sand and leaf mould in the spring, and I keep it weeded … If I were to begin the garden now, I’d site it in full sun in raised beds — to create ‘cushions’ of Chamomile. There is certainly something romantic about being barefoot, glass in hand, enjoying the scent and birdsong ... I read The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley in my teens, need I say more!”
Whether for summer romance or year-round practicality, chamomile has timeless appeal. As well as for lawns, it can be used as banks or edging, or as a substitute for moss in a Japanese-themed garden. It lends itself for use in a checkerboard patio, using alternating mats of chamomile and flagstones. (Allow 10cm soil depth and width between the stones.)
Chamomile is less well suited to heavy, continual footfall, but, unlike traditional turf, its open structure is broadly beneficial to wildlife. It attracts bees and other pollinators, as well as supporting insects, small invertebrates and, since it isn’t mowed, other ground-dwelling creatures.
Leigh Hunt, principal horticultural adviser at the RHS, notes that, “There has been a noticeable increase in interest in lawn alternatives as part of the broader ‘rewilding’ and ‘no-mow’ movements,” which he attributes to “public awareness of pollinator decline, and a desire for low-maintenance, eco-friendly gardens”.
Campaigns such as Wild About Lawns — part of the Wild About Gardens project by The Wildlife Trusts and the RHS — have highlighted the ecological value of chamomile lawns. Their impact can be increased by “planting chamomile alongside other British native plants and archeophyte wildflowers to create a continuous food or habitat corridor,” says Hunt. With the flowering, Roman variety, Hunt adds, growers could allow patches to bloom rather than be kept tightly clipped, to benefit pollinators.
Fragrant, soft underfoot and a haven for wildlife, the chamomile lawn remains an overlooked classic of the English garden. Yet it deserves more acclaim. Back in 1618, orchardist William Lawson recommended “arbours at the corners of the walks, and banks of camomile or other sweet herbs on which to rest”. More than four centuries later, his advice still holds.
Photography: Alamy; David Taylor
