403 · Chives

About this plant

Slim, hollow green blades with a mild, clean onion flavor, plus edible lavender-pink pom-pom flowers in spring. Snip them over eggs, baked potatoes, soups, and sour cream; add at the end, since heat destroys the flavor. A hardy clumping perennial and true cut-and-come-again herb: shear the clump back and it regrows, and it can be divided every few years.

Planting it at home

When to plant out

Right away. Our low-desert planting window for cool-season plants ends about mid-February.

Where

Containers, Raised bed

Spacing

6"

Size

10–12"

Care

Sun

Full–part sun

Water

Moderate; let topsoil dry

Feed

Light feeding only; too much fertilizer weakens the flavor (general guide).

Good to know

Grown from

Seed — sown by FHCG volunteers

Uses

Eggs, potatoes, soups, sour cream

Harvest

Snip blades

Life cycle

Perennial

Heirloom or hybrid

Heirloom — saved seeds grow true

Pollinators

High — "high nectar volume, well suited as pollinator plants" (NCSU)

Heat (our summer)

Moderate–High