Chives!????

[zazen999]

so should I sow now and leave them outside each year i put them somewhere warm they never seem to germinate am i keeping them to warm

No, sow them outside now and they will germinate when they are ready.

[zazen999]

I bought mine in the garden centre last year and they didn't last long, they got infected with greenflies and had to be chucked out. I've got seeds this year, I haven't planted them yet.

You don't plant seeds, you sow seeds. You are keeping them too warm. Chives are hardy and perennial.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Get a pot. fill 3/4 full of soil. Put the whole packet of seeds in [open the packet and tip the seeds onto the surface of the soil]. Put half an inch of soil over the top. Label them 'chives'. Stick outside until they germinate.

Chives are hardy. Mine are planted in the flower border. They die back during the winter and re-sprout when the weather warms up in Spring.

They also multiply into big clumps which you can lift and separate.

According to this guide The Official Seed Starting Home Page - Chives chives need warmth to germinate successfully. If you can germinate tomatoes and chillies you should be able to germinate chives.

Chives will germinate just fine outside once the soil warms up a bit . The advice above given by the others is sound.

[cheops]

I bought a 'pot' by Suttons for £1 IN Tescos a couple of weeks ago. Inside was a smaller pot, some compost and a small pkt of chive seeds. On the outer package / pot Suttons had boldly printed 'guaranteed to grow'. Never had grown chives before. As instructed plant seeds in compost, water and place on windowsill. I have now lots of little green sprouting chives. I will eventually plant them in a clump in the herb bed. I wanted to plant chives not just as another useful herb but I had read the purple flowers are adored by the bees. My question is - in the summer even though I will be 'harvesting' continually the green leaves of the chives will the plants still produce flowers? Or do I need to leave the plants unharvested for it to flower. Any help/advice - I thank you in advance.

[veggiechicken]

The flower stalks (round & hollow) and the leaves (flat) are different. So when snipping, cut the flat ones and don't take all of them as leaves are needed to keep the plant growing and flowering.

[cheops]

Thx Veggiechicken - will be discerning as I snip. It will be nice to have a herb which is culinary useful, bee benefical and has attractive flowers.

[veggiechicken]

I love chives and all the perennial alliums. Some years ago I was given a clump of tall chives that grow about 18" - 2' and seem far more robust than the usual ones. The flowers are very striking and the bees love them. You can see them in this photo

[cheops]

Wow that's a beautiful picture, and even though the tall chives is the main subject here one's eye is constantly taken elsewhere. That is a picture that could easily be framed and hung in a kitchen. Anyway back to the subject of chives - I didn't know they belonged to the allium family. In retrospect I should have from the flower heads. Two final questions - will my chive seedlings mature enough in their first summer to flower and secondly should I transplant them out in a clump? What I mean by that is put all the seedlings close together?

[Verinda]

That is a lovely photo VC, so pretty.

My chives grow in a spot that's cold and quite unsheltered in winter and full sun in the summer and thanfully they seem to be thriving.

[weekendwellies]

I had read the purple flowers are adored by the bees. My question is - in the summer even though I will be 'harvesting' continually the green leaves of the chives will the plants still produce flowers? Or do I need to leave the plants unharvested for it to flower. Any help/advice - I thank you in advance.

yes the bees adore them, I had one of those pots from the supermarket several years ago, and some seeded itself between my flags, it comes up regular every year, and gets lots of purple golf ball flowers which the bees swarm over. if you dead head regularly, they keep on coming, and you can still take the leaves for your cooking.
I guess if you dont dead head then the plant thinks it has done its bit to continue the species and put its efforts into the roots and stop producing flowers. not sure, but that is my guess.

[mrbadexample]

yes the bees adore them,

You're not kidding. I repotted mine last year - went through the entire process with a big fat bumblebee glued to the flower heads the whole time.

[Linzy]

I always buy mine from the supermarket split into clumps of six grow on for abit then plant out the following year

[Potstubsdustbins]

Last year my garlic chives needed to be sorted has they have been in the same pot for 5 years or more.

I let them run to seed and collected the seed heads, these were left on the GH bench and forgotten about until a couple of weeks ago. The fiddly job was removing the seed from the flowers 'plumbers fingers' after that they were scattered into 3 inch pots of MPC and given a little bottom heat. Result nice new plants ready for the new season.

One thing I have found that helps is that the flower stalks go hard and woody at the end of the year, a few minutes pulling 'not cutting' these off always seems to give the plants a good start for the next season.

Potty

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Potty - you've reminded me that I have some garlic chives seeds that I saved - they are fiddly I'm going to sow then right this minute
Edit : Done!!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Actually VC I cheated. Looking at AP's thread on onions from seed and chive seed are almost identical I followed his instructions about a little bottom heat. They were through in 9 days.

Potty