Chives

About

Chives are the herb that asks least and gives longest. One clump planted in March will still be feeding you in fifteen years, dying back each winter and coming up again without being told.

They are also native here. Allium schoenoprasum grows wild across the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including a few rocky sites in Britain, which is why a plant with a Mediterranean-sounding name shrugs off a Scottish winter.

The flowers are the part most people waste. Those purple pompoms are edible, they taste of mild onion, and they pull apart into individual florets that scatter over a salad. Bees work them constantly through June.

Appearance and character

Dense clumps of narrow, hollow, cylindrical leaves, mid green, growing straight up from a cluster of small bulbs just under the soil. The hollowness is easy to confirm by squashing a cut end.

Flowers come in early summer as tight rounded heads of pink to pale purple florets on stems slightly taller and stiffer than the leaves. Each head holds thirty or more individual flowers.

The flavour is onion without the harshness, and it lives in fresh leaves only. Chives lose almost everything on drying, which is why dried chives taste of paper. Freezing keeps far more, and chopped leaves frozen flat in a bag stay usable all winter.

Flower stems are tough and fibrous. Harvest the leaves for the kitchen and leave the flower stalks for the bees, or pick the flower heads themselves.

Where it is from

The temperate Northern Hemisphere, across Europe, Asia and North America. In Britain it is a genuine native, found on damp rock ledges and riverside gravel in a handful of western and northern sites.

River gravel that floods and then drains is the habitat, and it explains a combination that sounds contradictory. Chives want more water than most herbs during growth and sharp drainage underneath, so they rot in a soggy winter bed and go tough in a dry summer one.

They tolerate more shade than most alliums, which follows from growing under riverside vegetation rather than on open hillside.

How it grows

A hardy herbaceous perennial. Each plant is a cluster of small elongated bulbs that divides into more bulbs every year, so a single plant becomes a fist-sized clump in three seasons and a congested one in five.

Growth starts in early March and runs to October. The whole plant dies back to nothing over winter and reappears without fuss.

Flowering happens in June, occasionally with a second flush in September if the first was cut back promptly.

Congestion is what eventually spoils a clump. The centre becomes woody, the leaves thin, and flowering drops off. Lift and split every three years in spring, pulling the clump into fist-sized pieces and replanting the outer, younger sections.

Chives self-seed readily if the flowers are left to set. Seedlings are welcome in a herb bed and a nuisance in a gravel path, so deadhead if you want to control where they go.

Through the seasons

Spring brings the first cutting, usually by late March. Divide congested clumps now, and top-dress the bed with compost.

Summer is flowering and heavy harvesting. Cut hard and often. Water containers most days in hot weather.

Autumn slows growth and the leaves yellow from October. Cut the clump to the ground once it goes over rather than leaving soggy foliage on the crown.

Winter is complete dormancy. Nothing shows above ground, and nothing needs doing. A pot lifted into a cold greenhouse in November gives you cutting through the winter.

Care difficulty

Easy, and the only real skill is in how you cut.

Take whole leaves from the outside of the clump at 2 to 3 cm above the soil, rather than trimming the tips off everything. Tipped leaves stay as blunt stumps and never regrow properly, so a haircut across the top leaves you with a brown-tipped clump that looks worse each time.

When the whole clump goes tough and fibrous, cut every leaf down to 5 cm. It looks brutal and it regrows tender within two weeks.

Watering

Keep the soil moist through the growing season. Chives are thirstier than most herbs and drought makes the leaves yellow, tough and flavourless.

Containers dry out fast and a pot of chives in July may need water every day. Any check to growth from dryness shows up in the kitchen within days.

Cut watering back sharply from October. Wet soil around dormant bulbs over winter rots them, which is the one way an established clump dies.

Mulch in spring with compost to hold summer moisture without waterlogging the crown.

Warning signs, diseases and pests

Allium rust is the main disease, appearing as bright orange pustules on the leaves in warm damp summers. Cut the whole clump to the ground and bin the material rather than composting it. Fresh growth usually comes clean. Crowded clumps get it worst, which is another reason to divide.

Allium leaf miner has spread widely through Britain since 2002 and now outranks rust in many gardens. The adult fly leaves a line of white dots down the leaf, and the larvae tunnel into the bulbs, letting rot follow. Cover with fine insect mesh in October and again in March, which are the two flight periods.

Downy mildew shows as pale patches with a greyish felt on the undersides in humid weather. Improve air movement and avoid overhead watering.

Yellow floppy leaves in summer are almost always drought. Water well, cut back to 5 cm and the plant recovers.

A clump that fails to appear in spring has usually rotted in winter wet. Replant on a raised bed or in a pot with grittier compost.

Growing environment

Full sun gives the best flavour, but four hours of direct sun is enough and chives take light shade better than any other allium. Deep shade makes them lank and pale.

Fully hardy throughout Britain, to around -20 deg C, with no winter protection needed.

Soil should hold moisture and still drain, which means adding organic matter to sand and grit to heavy clay. Moderate fertility suits them; very rich soil gives soft growth that flops.

Containers work well and pots at least 20 cm across give room for the clump to thicken. Chives on a kitchen windowsill are usually a disappointment, because indoor light is too weak, so grow them outside and cut what you need.

Feeding

An organic liquid feed monthly through the growing season, plus a spring top-dressing of garden compost, covers everything a bed-grown clump wants.

Container plants exhaust their compost within a season and need feeding more seriously, roughly fortnightly from April to August.

Use organic feeds on anything you are going to eat. Seaweed extract works well and encourages leafy growth rather than flowers.

Avoid high-nitrogen fertiliser. It produces soft floppy leaves that are prone to rust and short on flavour.

Troubleshooting

Tough, stringy leaves. The clump is old or has been drought-stressed. Cut everything to 5 cm and water well, and tender growth follows in a fortnight.

Brown blunt tips across the whole clump. The leaves were trimmed rather than cut at the base. Cut whole leaves low down from now on.

Orange spots on the leaves. Allium rust. Cut to the ground, bin the foliage, and divide the clump if it is congested.

White dotted lines down the leaves. Allium leaf miner. Cover with insect mesh next October and March.

Fewer flowers each year. Congestion. Lift and divide in spring, replanting the young outer sections.

Seedlings everywhere. The flowers were left to set. Deadhead after flowering unless you want them.

The cat has eaten some. Ring a vet now rather than waiting for signs. The anaemia chives cause in cats can take several days to appear.