Are you quite, quite sure it's the German Chamomile, and not the perennial Roman Chamomile? I suspect it might be the Roman, given that it didn't grow very tall.

If I'm right, you've got the best kind. German Chamomile, while it has the same medicinal virtues as the Roman Chamomile, is definitely more of a weed (one of its common names is actually False Chamomile). This is the one of the reasons it is more popular with commercial growers!

The flowers of German Chamomile are slightly smaller and they have hollow, yellow central disks. The foliage is not as fragrant but the dried flowers are less bitter than those of C. nobile.

I'd be interested to know what botanical name was on the packet - despite the fact that we know seed-producers are notoriously flexible with their labelling and not to be trusted!!

Roman (true) Chamomile is Chamaemelum nobile or Anthemis nobilis; German Chamomile is Matricaria recutita

I don't see how this one could be Roman, unless somehow there were both Roman and German in the same packet, and the seedlings looked 100% identical up until the time they were transplanted to the garden.

The other plant(s) from the same batch got tall and produced a zillion flowers, and then the plant died. This particular plant just never grew past the point of a tiny seedling. It also doesn't look like a short plant  it looks stunted. It's definitely true that I let the seedlings sit too long in tiny seed-starting containers, and they were fairly root-bound when I transplanted them. However, the others from the same seed batch took off as soon as they got in the garden, while this one stayed tiny...and yet, it never just gave up and died. It never bloomed, or even looked like it was thinking about blooming.

I've seen a low-growing perennial chamomile in our area, usually mixed in with the grass in the park, or that sort of thing. This isn't it.

The seed packet says all of the following: "Chamomile, German" and "Matricaria Recutita," and "annual, cool-season crop." The seeds are from Botanical Interests, whom I tend to trust (do they deserve that trust?).

I was just now considering the possibility that what I'm seeing is not last year's plant, but a new plant from re-seeding of the sibling plant. However, I really don't think so, for the following reasons: It's in precisely the same place as last year's stunted plant, it looks exactly the same, it has the same "tiny clump of too-many plants" look to it, there are no others (I would expect dozens from re-seeding, not one), and also, the cold weather just broke so recently that I don't think anything has germinated yet. Some of the perennials have greened up or sent up new shoots, but I haven't seen any new seedlings anywhere.

I do know that some plants die shortly after they go to seed, which is why I'm wondering if German chamomile is "annual" in the "dies after blooming" sense and not the "can't handle the cold" sense. So, since this plant hasn't bloomed yet, it also hasn't died yet.

But still...strange.

Leira, I'm betting your German chamomile is a new plant that came from the seeds of the flowering plant you had last year. German chamomile is my fave chamomile, love that green apple scent and its relaxing qualities. Around here, mayweed (Matricaria perforata) is known as false chamomile, as it looks like chamomile, but there is no scent. German chamomile is one of the first green things in the spring in my zone 5 garden.

Herbalbetty, I really don't think so, for all of the reasons I've stated above. Plus, this doesn't even look like a new seedling  it looks like a (tiny, stunted) plant that has survived the winter. It looks like a plant that's starting to get its color back, not one that's just getting started in life.

Plus, when the sibling plant went to seed, I shook hundreds, of not thousands, of seeds into that area. It doesn't make sense to me that I would have exactly one well-established plant/clump (it's not easy to tell which  we're talking about 1 inch across and thick), and not several.

Could be a plant that was self-sowed at the end of last season, as previously mentioned and it is still trying to fulfill its mission, to flower and spread its seeds. Life is always trying to find a way.

Of note, Matricaria discoidea or pineapple weed is quite common here. Except for its flower, pineapple weed looks and smells quite a lot like chamomile. It too is an annual.

FataMorgana

I had the exact same thing happen with my German chamomile plant this year. I had planted one late last fall that I had grown from seed and it didn't even have time to flower; it was just foliage. It grew back this spring from the small, brown, dried-up looking plant. And I live in Minnesota where we had an extremely cold winter this past year.