next »

[Campo Girl]

Chives produce clumps of mid green, grass like leaves. Use fresh leaves to flavour soft cheese or butter, or in salads, soups or stir fries. These perennials are related to onions and garlic.

The hollow cylindrical leaves of chives have a mild onion flavour. The plant produces globular mauve-pink blooms in summer.

Height spread: 30x20 cm (12x8 in)

Cultivation: Grow in moist, fertile soil, in sun or light shade

Propogation: Sow seed outdoors in spring. Divide plants every 3-4 weeks in autumn

Pests and Diseases: Chives may be affected by rust or mildew in damp conditions

[Alana]

Chives are the one thing I have been able to successfully grow no matter whether they are watered or not. Of course I am not saying this is advisable but they appear to be quite hardy and it's fantastic to just nip outside to pick chives for an omelette or to add to a salad when you've forgotten the onions etc.

I know in the photo above you have chives with small purple flowers on them. When mine grow those I find myself pulling them off - are they supposed to be growing on them? They certainly do grow like that when you leave them for a while but I had no idea if they were supposed to - ?!

They don't appear to affect the chives as such but thought it would be worth asking...

:-) x

[Campo Girl]

I remove all flowers from my herbs as you should not let them flower if you want to eat, the plant will spend most of its time giving the goodness to the flower instead of the herb, so remove them and continue to eat

[berwyn]

Hello,
I like to leave some flowers on, and if they are used pretty soon after they open, they look lovely sprinkled on salads, they have a mild onion flavour, but can get a little dry if not picked  soon.

Berwyn

[Campo Girl]

Yeah I must admit that I leave the flowers on some of my rosemary just because it looks nice