I have found them to be invasive. They are prolific seed producers and also increase by bulb division. They do taste very good on a baked potato, as a garnish to broiled meats, mixed into dips, and sprinkled over a salad or veggies.

They'll grow just about anywhere. I keep mine in a pot to make sure they behave themselves. It's in full sun - I find in a shady spot, the leaves will lean towards the sun. No need to water them much, but don't let the soil dry out between waterings. In a pot, make sure it's well-drained.

It's best to divide a clump every year or so. The clump can get very tight, and you might find some of the chives will be choked to death this way. Clumps can get very large.

The perfect place for garlic chives is around roses - they attract aphids away from roses.

Garlic chives are closely related to the real Garlic. Hence:

Warning: Avoid large doses of garlic if suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, or if suffering from restlessness, insomnia with accompanying exhaustion, thirst and dehydration. Therapeutic use should be avoided during pregnancy and lactation. Ingesting more than 10 raw cloves per day can be toxic. Pure, undiluted juice used externally can burn sensitive skin. (Remember that garlic can be absorbed through the skin.) Garlic capsules combined with diabetes medication can cause a dangerous decrease in blood sugars. Do not use garlic if taking any of the following: Aspirin. Anticoagulants. Diabetes medications. Hypoglycaemic drugs. Antiplatelet drugs. Warfarin. Some people who are sensitive to garlic may experience heartburn and flatulence.

Garlic chives has the same medicinal and culinary uses as the real garlic - just a bit milder in effect and flavour. I find that the flowers have the strongest flavour, but you can use the green parts or the white stem (above-ground bits).

When harvesting, cut right back to ground-level. Use garlic chives anywhere you'd use garlic. You can chop the leaves finely, like ordinary chives, or make bundles of them (not too many!) and remove the bundle before serving (add it towards the end of cooking for best flavour). Or you can finely chop the white bits and leave them in the dish, or put them in whole and remove them. Garlic chives freeze well, both stems and leaves.

In a cool climate, the clump might die right back to soil level in winter, then come back in spring. In a warmer climate they just slow down a little.

If you have chooks (hens), they'll devour the entire clump in no time flat. It's good for them - the chooks, I mean, not the plant!

Garlic (and garlic chives) are good companions for:

Apple, Apricot, Beetroot, Carrot, Cherry, Fruit Trees, Lavender, Lettuce, Mulberry, Parsnip, Peach Tree, Pear Tree, Raspberries, Rose, Rosemary, Tomato, Strawberry, Vetch.

Do not grow with:
Beans, Cabbage, Strawberries, Peas, Asparagus.

Not meaning to be disagreeable, but I am on an anticoagulant, Coumadin, generic name Warfarin, for a blood clot I developed in my neck over two years ago. I have my Pro-Time checked every week and my INR target number is between 2-3 and have always stayed safely there. And I am not on what would be considered a low dose, taking 6mgs per day.

That being said, I cook with garlic all the time. I use it to flavor olive oils, marinate with it, sautee with it. You name it.

I would always check with your doctor first, but I think one would have to injest an incredible amount of garlic (say eating an entire bulb) for it to make any difference, if then. As I said, I've been on Coumadin/Warfarin for over two years, and garlic is a staple in my diet. My bloodwork and my doctor don't lie.

But every individual is different. I would check with your doctor. I would hate to think, if you're on Coumadin/Warfarin, that you're depriving yourself of wonderful garlic when you don't have to do so.

I didn't find the garlic chives very invasive here. I wish they were. I had to remove a big blueberry bush that was incroaching on the garlic chive area. Now, I only have two tiny clusters of them left. Right now, they are sending up a small flower bud. If these are plucked off, you don't see them spreading very much. I hope that by next year, I will have a few more of these that I can harvest again. They grow next to my wild onions (looks very much like a regular chive).

As mentioned above, any place you choose to use regular chives you can substitute the garlic variety. I like chives in my eggs, scrambled or an omelette, they really go well together.

another good use is with creamy cheeses, like cottage cheese or ricotta, for stuffing ravioli or used in lasagna. use this cheese mixture to stuff a stromboli or calzone.

Also use in fresh salads; tomato and onion salad, couscous salad, rice salad, roast veggies with balsamic vinegarette salad, even your basic green salad.

Use in a poultry stuffing. Use in an herb butter, either alone or with other herbs like sage and/or parsley.

Use as a garnish as you would chopped parsley.

Cheers!

They make a good addition to a flower bed since the flowers (August) are very decorative. Haven't found them invasive either but if it starts looking like a problem, just be sure to clip off the flower heads before they set seed.
Great in omelets, stir fries, chopped and stirred into rice...

I make quick stuffed mushroom caps with them (among many other uses)

Mix together minced mushroom stems, bread crumbs, cotija cheese, and garlic chives. Stuff the caps, put a sliver of butter on top of stuffing, place in microwave for 30-45sec and then place in toaster oven for a light toasting. Also make another version with queso fresco, turkey bacon, tomatoes, and garlic chives. Place the cheese and bacon (cooked) into cap, micro and toaster oven as above, top with tomatoes and garlic chives.

also sprinkle on salads, eggs, potatoes, dips, etc.

love them, pretty flowers, not invasive for me.

now Egyptian onion on the other hand could take over if I let it.

enjoy,
-Ethan

Mine are sort of lazily invasive. They drop seeds nearby but the extra plants are easily uprooted.

I personally prefer the taste of "real" garlic to garlic chives, but they are good in some things, like with eggs. They're also delicious in Chinese dumplings.

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I love the beautiful flowers of garlic chives. Once the seed pods dry, I cut them and hang them inside a paper grocery bag. The seeds drop inside the bag, and I use the dried seed pods in dried arrangements and to make fireplace starter bundles (lavender stems, rosemary, siberian iris pods, and garlic chives flower pods tied with raffia and dipped in scented wax)

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My garlic chives has purple flowers. Very pretty. You never know which one you're going to get until the plant blooms.

I couldn't find a decent pic, so this one will have to do. The flowers on mind are a darker colour than the pic shows.

Here is a link that might be useful:

granite, you're a genius. I'm stealing your firestarter idea.

Thanks. I did up some "goody bags" for Christmas give-aways last year that contained a fire starter, a lavender sachet, and a baggie of thyme. I put it all in a brown paper lunch bag, punched holes in the top, and tied a little note to it with raffia that was titled "Seasoned greetings" and listed the items in the bags.

The purple flowering type may be regular chives. Regular chives have round hollow tubular leaves while garlic chives are flat leaves like thick blades of grass.

I have a garlic chive question. Is there a secret to growing these from direct seeding outside? After 3 seeding attempts I now have seedlings, but for the past 2-3 months they only have 2-4 leaves per plant. They are in full sun and have been watered routinely with all my clay pots (the chives are not potted but in my herb garden). The only thing I can think of is that garlic chives are fussy about their roots being pushed around by a family of moles that I've been battling (from which I emerged victorious).
I've grown regular chives in 3 different states with no issues. Any ideas?

Garlic chives are going to look spindly the first year. They survive winters usually and will start to grow a few more leaves next year. Right now, mine are sending up buds for the flowers that will soon form. I have three very small clumps left, after major relocation and removal of a couple of blueberry bushes right next to them. The seeds do drop and will give you small clumps of growth in coming years. Its not as robust as regular chives as to leafing out. Next to mine, are wild onions that are right now dorment, as they have sent up their seed balls which were crumbled a couple of weeks ago and I should start to see new greens emerging in about a month or so. My wild onions are an exact match to chive leaves, but these grow best in late fall through late spring. I can even harvest some in January, if there is no snow burying them. Any plant can be upset if its roots are disturbed too much

Richters sells seed for the mauve/purple flowering variety. -I'll be adding to cart soon!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mauve Garlic Chives

I wintersowed my Garlic Chives, but as is mentioned they are pretty spindly the first year so I don't expect much else this year. Can't wait to see those gorgeous blooms next fall :D
These were one of the fist to germinate in early March.

As for invasiveness, Common Chives can be just as bad if you allow them to flower and set seed.

Here's a pic of my chives in bloom. They are quite beautiful.

My garlic chives have white blooms and are quite small and not as bunched or in a ball shape. Regular chives have similar purple. Could you be growing an allium that is more of an ornamental?

The flowers of my garlic chives aren't balls, either. They are sort of like elongated bells. Take another look at the pic I posted above. They do not resemble onion chive flowers at all.

Yes, mine are exactly like the white flowers above. Bees go crazy over the flowers too. Mine are just starting to form the flower buds right now.

So garlic and garlic chives are too different plants? Sorry if my question sounds dumb,it's because I just started on growing herbs. I was wondering would garlic or garlic chives survive in hot climates like indonesia? Thanks everyone.

Yes, thats true. Regular garlic leaves are edible, but are shaped differently compared to garlic chives. My garlic chives have no big bulbs in the soil and last throughout the summer months. The leaves a thick, and flat, but have a slightly raised middle the whole length of the leaf. Regular garlic leaves usually die out about now, and send up a stiff round stalk (a scape) if its the hard neck variety. These scapes should be removed as they take strength from the clove clusters in the soil. Once the regular garlic leaves die out, its ready to dig up. You never dig up a garlic chive, and because it has these small white flowers, you can collect the black seeds and plant it in new locations where it will form more clumps in future years. Garlic (soft neck types) can be planted in late summer and grow through winter. Garlic chives simply send up new greens every year in late spring.
I believe the garlic chives will grow in heat and garlic should also grow, but hard neck varieties of garlic are meant for northern cooler climates, so choose the soft neck varieties, or even try elephant garlic with huge cloves.

Ok I'll check into that. Thanks.