chives are in the Alliums same as onions so they should resemble small green onions with little purple flowers on top of some chives that have sorta flat leaves are referred to as garlic chives most of the time

There are non-bulb forming "Bunching Onions" which are sold in clumps and get much thicker than real Chives, but look similar when small. Bunching Onions don't flower until summer (at least the first year, if overwintered I don't know).

Restaurants often call fresh "Bunching" green onions chives, since they are much easier to ship and cut fresh than real chives. Maybe that is why she calls them chives.

Garlic chives have flatter, thicker leaves than regular chives, and white flowers. Could they be that variety?

These have hollow looking leaves, not flat. Sounds like bunching onions. Do you use tham as you would green onions? When do you harvest them? How big do they get?

Yes, Bunching onions are hollow, so are regular Chives. Bunching Onions are basically the same as Green Onions from the grocery store.

You can pull up or cut off the Green Onions one by one, when they get big enough to eat, whenever you want them all Spring long to Fall, so you can get production all year long from a bunch. If they are growing, they are edible. They are rather strong in the hot summer months thou, but are still good cut up cooked.