There’s plenty going on these days to be stressed about. It seems like every day there is a new disaster looming on the horizon.
Doctors these days are quick to hand out a prescription to treat your anxiety, but that’s not always the best option.
Before you try a prescription medication like Xanax for your anxiety, look in your garden. It’s possible you already are growing a calming plant and don’t even know it.
Roman vs. German Chamomile
People have been using chamomile for its medicinal properties for thousands of years. The earliest accounts date all the way back to Egyptian times.
But interestingly enough, there are two varieties of Chamomile, both from different families but with similar properties.
More studies have been conducted about German Chamomile than Roman Chamomile, though both plants are used to treat the same symptoms.
One primary difference is in the essential oils made from the two different varieties.
Related: 14 Plants You Can Turn Into Oil
When an essential oil is made from German Chamomile flowers, it is a distinctive blue color. For this reason, German Chamomile is sometimes referred to as Blue Chamomile.
Identification
It’s possible you have chamomile growing in your garden and don’t even know it. It’s a common garden plant, and both varieties are easy to grow and establish.
Not only are they easy to grow, but they are attractive as well. Both German and Roman Chamomile feature small white flowers with yellow centers.
They look a bit like small daisies and liven up any landscape. These flowers are what are used medicinally. You may find they have a slight apple smell.
While there are similarities between the two plants, there are differences as well.
German Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is a shrub-like annual that grows to about three feet tall.
It prefers to grow in full sun or partial shade, in light sandy soil with good drainage.
If you plant them in your garden leave 18 inches between plants.
They are vigorous self-seeders, so you can expect them to return once you have them established.
On the other hand, Roman Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) is a perennial plant rather than an annual.
Smaller than German Chamomile, Roman Chamomile usually is only about one foot tall. It is native to Europe and Northern Ireland and is also commonly found growing in North America.
How To Harvest
While those white flowers make a great addition to your garden, they also make a great addition to your tea.
For the most flavorful tea, it is always best to harvest in the morning after the dew is dry. More essential oils are concentrated in the flowers at this time.
Simply pinch the stem below the blossom and gently pop off the flower. You will want to choose flowers that are fully in bloom. Make sure you leave the blossoms you see. You will be able to harvest these later as they bloom.
Place your flowers in a dehydrator set to the lowest setting until they are dry.
Alternately, you can dry them on a screen in a cool, dark place.
This method takes significantly longer, so be prepared to wait 2 – 3 weeks for your flowers to dry.
Once they are dry, you can store them in a jar in a cool, dark cabinet.
You can use the flowers for up to six months, but they will lose potency over time.
Medicinal Properties
Chamomile is one of my favorite herbs for a number of different ailments. It is well known for its ability to relax and calm, making it a common choice to help with anxiety and insomnia.
But chamomile calms and relaxes your body in other ways as well. It is a particularly potent calmative for your digestive tract, which makes it an excellent choice for stomach problems.
It is less well known for its antiseptic and antimicrobial properties.
A brew of chamomile tea is great for resolving many skin issues.
Use it on rashes, irritation, and even infections. You can wash the affected area directly with chamomile tea.
Alternately, soak a clean facecloth in the warm brew and use it as a poultice.
Chamomile is easily found in most supermarkets. Alternately you can brew your own from flowers you have harvested and dried. That way, you can be certain of the quality of your herbs.
⇨ Buy Here Your Own Chamomile Seeds Before They Are All Gone
While chamomile is considered safe enough for children, it should be avoided by pregnant women as there is a risk of miscarriage.
When I brew chamomile, I often mix it with other herbs for either flavor or for other beneficial effects. I find Chamomile and lavender is my go-to blend for anxiety.
You can adjust the amount of lavender to your taste. If you add too much, it can taste “soapy.”
Chamomile Lavender Tea
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp dry chamomile flowers
- ¼ tsp dry lavender flowers
- 8 ounces of water
- honey to taste
Directions:
- Bring 8 ounces of water to a boil
- Turn off water and let stand for one minute
- Add chamomile and lavender
- Let steep for five minutes
- Strain out the herbs
- Add honey to taste
Other Common Herbs For Anxiety
Chamomile is not the only herb you may find in your garden that can help with your anxiety. If you live in the Southeastern US, you may find Maypops (Passiflora incarnta) growing in your garden.
It is easily recognized by its showy purple flower. You can use the leaves and flowers to make either a tea or tincture to help alleviate anxiety and insomnia.
But be aware the tea is bitter, so you may want to combine it with a bit of mint and honey to make it more palatable.
Valerian is another common garden herb that is good for treating anxiety. You can take a few drops of tincture made from the roots. It should help soothe your rattled nerves quickly.
Final Thoughts
Before you go to the pharmacy, take a look in your garden. There are several common herbs that you can harvest easily to make teas and tinctures to help with your anxiety.
Chamomile is a common garden herb that can help alleviate your anxiety. It is easy to grow, and once you have it established in your garden, you will find it returns to bless you year after year. Not only can chamomile tea help you relax and sleep better, but it can also help with stomach ailments and skin conditions.
If you are not a fan of chamomile, both Maypop and Valerian are also plants that can help treat insomnia. While Maypop only grows in warmer climates, valerian is considered an invasive weed in some areas.
If you don’t already have these plants growing in your garden, hurry up and get some. Those natural remedies will have you relaxed and smiling in no time.
Pretty good article. Thanks for posting it. I wonder if tincturing it would keep the medicinal value of the flowers beyond the 6 months mentioned.
Stress can be good if it motivates you to DO something useful to destress. Like concerns about food so you plant and weed your garden. Stress can weaken you if you do not useful things like buying more distractions like booze and pretty toys instead of addressing the source of your stress. Stress can kill you.
Frank Herbert has a good quote about fear that fits well here:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Mystic but not unlike the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch[a] with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on.[b] See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Watch for stress in your friends and family. Talking and consoling is often the best treatment along with the kindness of faith and maybe tea.
Soon we will call today for all it’s warts “The Good old days”.
No way could this time ever be remembered as “The Good Old Days!” Today we have a supply chain so broken that we have $7/gallon gas, no baby formula on the shelves,, no borders, no sanctity of life, no common sense, no respect on the world stage, and out of control sky high inflation! Somebody has been making bad decisions! Right now, “The Good Old Days”, are long gone and this time, under the present administration, will definitely go down as “The Really Really Bad Old Days”. I for one can’t wait to see them in my rear view mirror!
Great article. I have been lean a lot about edibles and medicinal wild plants this year.
I can’t quote the source, but I read somewhere, perhaps on the box the chamomile tea cane in, that if one is taking high blood pressure medication, one should consult with one’s physician before continuing a course of both products.
I asked the cardiologist I am seeing for high blood pressure and he said, “What’s chamomile tea?”
Golly, Bill! Am I the only one who thinks one should not be compelled to conduct research in order to instruct the professional one is consulting in the minute details of THEIR profession?
If he were older than I, I might expect him to not know what chamomile tea is or have forgotten, but a guy in his early 40s, I would expect to have had some friends who consumed it even if he had not himself.
Try asking him about colloidal silver
I forgot all the uses for Colloidal silver.
Most doctors know very little about herbal remedies and I honestly believe they are told in medical school only idiots believe in them. Well, not that they care about what I think but I believe most doctors are idiots, and statistics are behind me. Doctors and pharmaceuticals kill more people than guns, heart attacks and cancer combined (although democrats will tell you guns kill everybody _ they just jump out of the closets and safes by themselves and kill people – that’s why they are called assault weapons)
I have to agree. While this guy has good skills now, I wouldn’t want to go to him when he gets past about 55 y.o. He is too didactic already and unwilling to entertain new ideas. He is like Napoleon’ jackass. Been in ten campaigns and doesn’t know any more after ten than he knew after one.
I had been watching NHK as is my wont and saw a program where a Japanese manufacturer of titanium instruments had finally achieved stretching titanium wire so thin that it could be made into cardiac stents that didn’t require blood thinners.
Polymer stents don’t require blood thinners but they don’t last in the body. Stainless steel stents last a lifetime but require blood thinners.
After Ii told this scientific genius about the TV program he exploded with, “Impossible! My professor in med school has spent his lifetime trying to develop a stent that didn’t require blood thinners and he was unable to do so.”
Well, I am sorry but that dog don’t bark. Just because someone has been unable to achieve a lifetime goal does not mean it is “impossible.”
I can remember when it was a dictum of track and field that it was physically impossible to run the mile in under four minutes. Now if you can’t regularly run the mile in under four minutes in college the track coach might suggest that you try out for the theater group. Or perhaps towel and water boy.
It is that kind of hide-bound thinking that led the medical group-think to poo-poo the idea of bacteria. I just read today that in the 19th century the major dental thought was that tooth decay was caused by worms and the standard treatment was to blow candle smoke into the mouth with decayed teeth to fumigate the mouth and drive the worms out. Much like bleeding to drive down a fever. We now know how well that works.
What do you call someone who graduated last in their class in medical school – DOCTOR. Thanks for your comment.
Hubby’s cardiologist told him to take garlic capsules in addition to his meds! Nearly floored me, was not expecting herbal supplements.
My grandmother use to make chamomile for her parakeets when they caught cold. Seemed to work for the little guys too!
i have inquired of several doctors about supplementing with iodine, only to be told that it is something necessary to avoid mental defects in children and to avoid thyroid problems, but useless for much else. i’ve been accused of deliberately poisoning myself so i should be dead soon instead of my health steadily improving these last couple of years. doctors. what do they know?! they are busy people who understandingly don’t have much time to keep up with the latest discoveries, treatments, etc. if it doesn’t pertain to their practice. you have to be your own/family advocate. what do you call the med student who graduates 200th in a class of 200?
doctor.
I have some oregano, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme that all wintered over and have new growth this spring, but I have not tried growing any of the primarily medicinally oriented flowers / herbs. I’ll be adding both Chamomile and Lavender to my herb gardening efforts, hopefully they both will grow well in the hot, dry, and windy Southwest.
I have been using essential oils for years. They have helped me a lot.
The new monkey pox virus, has been renamed.
The New name is “MONEY POX”…
Get ready for this.
More lock downs.
Mandates
Vaccines
Lies
Beatings
pepper spray
burning down everything
Y’all know for the protection and your safety they so much care about.
Get this… Pfizer made 26 billion the first three month of this year, on vaccine and this new pills, they have for the Covid lie.
Now they want to start giving this small pox vaccine.
Every body did so good the first vaccine lie.
This time they say y’all will beg for them to get you and your family, this vaccine…lol
Lavender. “Grosso” is a great plant to get. It has a high oil content, used for perfumes and medicinally. Doesn’t like its feet too wet. Mine loves the rock garden it’s in. Full sun ×6 hours and then shade. They can be grown in partial shade. I think you may like this one.
ps. What’s with the ? people? Don’t believe in herbals?
Christ’s Warrior Princess,
You are so right about Lavender not liking wet “feet”. I had a couple of lavender plants not live very long because they were too close to the sprinkler head.
Also, those who are taking the time to come on this site to down vote people is really odd. My guess is that they’re those who love the plarma.
this site has been infested with Trolls, ignore the foolishness, but you may have to sort through a lot of BS for the worthwhile information.
So Soul Warming to See SO Many Awake and Aware Humans, Commenting Here! ?
With All of Us ‘On to’ the Parasitic Gobalist Ka-Ba’al’s Agenda and Not Complying with this Insane Genocide, we have a Real Chance to Re Claim This OUR World!
And Kick These Feckers Back to Where They Belong…?
Love to you All from Gulag OZ ?
You are All Welcome to Come and Visit and Connect at The Crowhuse Forum…
I had several chamomile plants pop up this spring. They’re all about a foot tall so I am guessing they are the Roman variety. When I pick the blossoms for drying, I approach the plant with my palm up and fingers slightly apart. After I have several blossoms poking up through my fingers, I pull up. 99% of the times, the blossom leaves the stem behind. Picking the blossoms seems to encourage new growth.
I recently purchased some passion flower (maypops) seeds. The seeds came with a coating, supposedly to make it easier to see the seeds to plant them. I read some information contradictory to the seed packet. What I read elsewhere, was to scarcify the seed with a nail file. By the seed company coating the seeds, it seems that it will make it even more difficult to germinate. The lesson is that, not everyone is an expert.
It’s not the guns, it’s the people who fire them. A gun can’t kill anyone unless someone pulls the trigger.
AMEN…
That is nothing but pure truth, right there.
I am really disappointed in the Latino community that they are not more vocal about the illegals’ coming into our country. The ones that came here legally and went through the paperwork and the waiting and jumping through hoops to become legal citizens, and to have people illegally passing the legal steps to be here, I would have thought there would have been more outcry from the ones that came legally.
Been doing the fingers do the walking. Found a couple new trees to grow. Mango, also for the leaves, to help D-2. A couple the fruit, i don’t like but the leaves are sooo medicinal. Need to be my own dr, as western medical is too strong for me.
I tried this one! It’s pretty decent!
I’ve found that Mimosa (the tree, not the drink) is VERY good for both anxiety and deep depression. The flowers are uplifting and the leaves/bark are grounding. A lot of people do both to keep the ‘uplifting’ from carrying them off, so to speak.
I’m out of both the leaf/bark and flower tinctures and am waiting for blooming season to start in the next few weeks. I’m going to make 3 kinds this year, flower, leaf/bark and whole plant.
This stuff can be taken with other Rx meds and even in place of them. There were not contraindications in the studies.