They are easy to grow from seed, but they aren't regular germinators. They can take their own sweet time. If the seeds were good, they will germinate eventually.

That said, a few Chive starts from the nursery won't cost much, and you'll never have to buy them again. They reproduce by both bulb offsets and seed at a prodigious rate. You can divide the clumps almost every year, if you want. I let volunteer seedlings grow if they land in a good spot, as well.

Thanks Donn,

I have never seen chives bulbs in my area. Will check around
when the green houses finely open up. Until then I will
pray to the gods of green, that maybe I will get a sprout or
two.

Mary

Any store that has a Bonnie's rack will have chives. They look like the wild onions at the stage they sell them. Ugly things. Mine germinated well this year. Don't know where I'm going to plant them yet, but they will get planted before summer.

AAhhh, Chives. If only I had known that's what that lovely blooming allium was, then I wouldn't have let it go to seed and now need to arm myself with a pair of kitchen shears and go trim whenever we're having baked potatoes... They are all in my rockbed and in the roses (the one with the HUGE thorns) and they don't pull up (through 4 inches of landscaping rock and two layers of landscaping material), and they're friggin' EVERYWHERE... I guess that's a warning: if you want chives, be very careful to collect the flower before the seedpods open, or you WILL have volunteers for years.

BTW, I could dig up a couple babies and send you some... Lord knows they're everywhere and I could justify the effort if it's for someone else's benefit!! Just send me an email with your addy. You don't ever have to reseed them; just trim the tops off, and every year you'll have more; you can let them go to seed, but as I mentioned, you'll want to either put them where you won't mind having them everywhere, or grab the flowers before the seeds drop out of them and save them for later.

If you have more seeds, just take the cover off and direct sow them in the same pot; they'll take root maybe some this year & maybe some the next if you keep the soil damp year-round. My chives never really died all winter long, they are just a bit out of control! BTW, when they do first come up, they're as slender as a piece of grass, but they'll thicken over time.

I WS'd Nodding Onion, Allium cernuum, last year and got 2 sprouts. They were slow to germinate and grow. Each seedling looked like 2 blades of grass by the end of last year. This Spring they look a little bushier.

I have several mature clumps of the common garden chives (Allium schoenoprasum) that I got as transplants from a friend's garden some 20 years ago. They are still going strong and occasionally they seed, but maybe because they're growing in dry sandy location, they have been very well-behaved. I've read it's the Garlic chives that can be invasive.

They are pretty when they bloom, and tasty too.

{{gwi:380045}}

I wonder is it garlic chives I have? The previous owner planted chives everywhere - I just can't seem to get rid of them. I've even seen these growing on top of bare soil. Every spring I have to pull out lots of these just to plant my annuals. Thankfully it is pretty easy to do.

I'm still waiting for the nodding onion I WS to germinate. Not even sure if my seeds are viable. But at least now I know they can be really slow to get going.

-StlGirl

terrene,t hanks for that note on nodding onion, Ill be patient with that one.

:)

I sprinkled chive seeds all over the place so far got nothin, Im afraid Ill be very sorry at some point tho.

:>

Thanks for the input on chives.
Terrene, I think chives are so cute in the garden.
I do want to add mine to salads etc.

I no longer have the packages so I don't know if mine
were the common type or not. The pictures showed
the onion chives with pink flowers & Garlic chives with
white.

Nodding onion, are we talking about the Egyptian Walking
onion?? My mom's yard has tons of those plants.

Mayberrygardener,
If I find that I cannot find bulbs in my area, I will
sure let you know and send you a padded envelope.

Thanks,
Mary

I love chives in the flower garden - but like terrene I've got soil that discourages them from being invasive.

This is what the garlic chives looked like in flower last year:
{{gwi:380048}}

The blooms last for weeks and are just beautiful.

Lynda

Hi Mary,

Here is a pic of the Nodding Onion (Allium Cernuum) I am referring to:
{{gwi:380050}}Does the Egyptian Walking Onion look like this?

-StlGirl

Here's an Egyptian walking onion photo. Friesfan - is this the type your mom has?
{{gwi:380051}}

Lynda

StlGirl,
Nope thats not it. Its pretty though!

Lynda,
That looks like it. It is edible.

Mary

Mary, yes, they sure are edible. :) We like them because they stay green most of the year in our zone. We only have about a month without fresh green onions in the garden.

Lynda

My common chives stay green most of the year. In the dead of winter the very tips turn brown, about 1/2 inch at the end. I cut some anyway for things like mashed potatoes and just cut off the brown tips. I love chive mashed potatoes and it's nice to have them in winter, too. (except when they're buried in snow...)

Karen

Onion Chives? Not sure if Common Chives are referred to as Onion Chives but they could be I guess? I think the common chives taste like onion and of course are milder than the Garlic Chives. In my experience common chives were easy to germinate. I sowed them into round containers and planted each container out as a single clump. Garlic chives on the other hand had pretty sparse germination and they were really slow to grow the first year; I think maybe they might have only grown a few additional leaves by fall. They are quite a bit later to come up than Common chives I noticed too. The 2nd year (last summer) they each only had a few flowers a piece. This year I'm hoping for a much better show; the white flowers are stunning. I love the picture Lynda!!
I too love the Common Chives in the garden. Nice full clumps can really put up a beautiful show of flowers!! I've only ever let one or two of them go to seed for harvesting for trades. I'm sure I'd have a ton of volunteers otherwise. The ones I use for harvesting I try to only allow them to flower just once in spring and use them for harvesting green chives the rest of the season. Otherwise the harvest contains more woody flower stems than good edible chives. So I walk around and pinch out forming flowering stems as I spot them. I harvest by cutting the entire plant back to about 3" from the ground. Cut into 2" sections and freeze on a flat tray and then quickly drop into ziplock freezer bags. So easy to dig up and divide into new smaller clumps too :)
{{gwi:380053}}
{{gwi:380055}}

Wow Vera,
You have lovely chives. I thought I knew something
about chives until I asked here. LOL

I saw a package of Common Chives at the grocery
store and thought about picking them up.
I no longer have my seed packets. Wish I had kept them.
I don't know the latin names and if there is a difference.

Chives look nice nestled in amongst the other plants in
your garden.

Getting bulbs may be my best bet at getting them
this year.

Mary

The chives I started last year is sadly still in the orginal milk jug I started them up. And I thought they died over the winter but they were the first things to pop up. Never did flower. Not sure what type of chives they are don't remember where I put the seed packet.The poor things did not even have a cover...

Paula

I WS some chives, I forget the variety. Maybe some Garlic chives and the regular ones that have pink flowers.

I just like them for cooking etc. They also are very pretty. I may just mix them with flowers now.

Karen

I mixed my chive seeds together both common and garlic. So while I have germination I don't know if it is both or just one of the varieties. I intend to plant them in clumps here and there in the flower beds. When I open the comforter case the sprouts are in I can smell the onion already. That surprised me.
Vera your gardens are lovely as always. I can't wait to see the pics from this year.

I have no chives from WSing--yet. Looks like I'll be picking up a plant or two in the next few weeks. For some reason, I thought they'd be easy. The green onions are going gangbusters!

Prof

I think that the package is misleading about
how easy these plants are to start. At least if you
want little plants to eat the first season.

Hope my local garden center has bulbs. It may be the
way I have to go. I don't want to wait forever! lol

paulan70,
Was that last years chives, and are they still alive?
Curious.

Mary

Chives and onion seed do not germinate well for most people if they are old. Seed I collected in 2008 started great although not as quickly as some of the fast starters like zinias and marigolds. Older seeds I had from previous years germinated very poorly. I'll keep lots of seeds for several years but I'm not carrying over any in the onion group anymore.

Perhaps yours were just too old to do well.

My chives (purple flower) bloom in late spring/early summer. Those started in the early spring do not bloom until the next year for me. The plants are very winter hardy in SW Michigan. I have had small pots set out on the patio freeze and thaw repeatedly, and dry out completely and yet the chives live and grow fine the next year.

Garlic chives (white flower) bloom in the late summer/fall. I've not started these from seed until this year so I'm not sure if they will flower the first year.

I've never seen "bulbs" in the sense of bare bulbs like the really showy alliums, but you can get a great chive start for about $2 from any good nursery about now.

I WS these this year, and I'm not sure they're worth the trouble. The starts naturalize so easily, and they're one of the first things to come up in the spring.
n The seeds for me have taken a long time to do anything. If I planted a greenhouse plant, I think I'd be able to harvest sooner.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a WS fanatic. But I think this one plant is worth spending the couple of bucks to be able to use in the kitchen sooner--for me at least. I use them constantly in cooking. I also move a lot so that might be the reason. I'm less patient with the herbs I need :)