We have had chives (Allium schoenoprasum) in the garden for 47 years.     In the last few years we have also included it in some of our flower beds.   We started with a single small plant and it has successfully come back or reseeded every year.   It requires some maintenance, but it is an easy plant to include in your garden and has lots of Pros with only a basic caution.

Pros

• Chives are edible herbs in the onion family.
• The taste is mild and can enhance a number of dishes, usually chopped up and sprinkled.
• The flowers are also edible.
• Flowering chives are an attractive flowering plant.
• It is a perennial in Zones 3 – 9.
• Minimal care is needed and they are mostly drought-tolerant.
• Flowering chives attract bees to the garden.
• The odor of chives can be used to deter pests.

All photos by the author.   Click an image for a lightbox view.

chives

chives

chives

chives

chives

chives

Cons

• Chives will multiply if the seedheads mature.   You may find it everywhere in your garden if it is not attended to.
• Mildly toxic to cats and dogs.

Best Practices

• It needs very little care.
• Let it flower, but when the flowers fade, the plant will start to fruit (form seeds).    Cut the heads back.
• If the seeds are not mature, the seedheads can go in the compost, but if they are mature, dispose of them (in the green bin).
• Cut out withered or woody growth and you should get a 3-4 crops in a growing season.
• Divide the clumps every few years.
• Cut back the leaf growth low and it will regrow.

We have come to grow chives as an ornamental, but we keep an eye on them in late spring.