Camomile (also spelt chamomile) lawns - a history
The
Camomile Lawn has a long tradition in England.
The Elizabethans
enjoyed the sweet fragrance that filled
the air as they walked on Camomile. The poet Spencer in 1574 wrote of
"Breathful Camomile" as he trod on the soft, springy lawn. Thomas Hyll, in 1577, wrote
of using camomile for "benches to sytte on".
The most famous camomile lawn is the one at Buckingham Palace which dates
from the reign of George V.
Camomile lawns in the past had one disadvantage -
they needed cutting. In the 1930s, Dorothy Sewart planted a camomile cutting in
the garden of her 18th Century stone cottage near Wadebridge in Cornwall. To
her surprise this camomile spread to form a low growing plant which never
flowered. It formed a fragrant, rich green lawn which did not turn brown in
dry weather. She had been extremely fortunate in
producing a clone of the variety Treneague.
We are specialist growers of Treneague which forms a fragrant lawn that never
needs mowing.
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