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How to Grow Chives: The Complete Guide

Photo Credit
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Allium schoenoprasum, A. tuberosum
Plant Type
Herb
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Soil pH
Slightly Acidic to Neutral
Bloom Time
Summer
Flower Color
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Hardiness Zone
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Special Features
Attracts Butterflies

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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Chive Plants

Catherine Boeckmann

Chives are perennial members of the onion family that sport beautiful edible flowers. Plus, they’re a wonderful companion plant that helps deter pests. Here’s how to grow chives in your garden!

About Chives: What are Chives?

Chives are cool-season, cold-tolerant perennials best planted in early to mid-spring for an early summer harvest.

Be mindful when planting this herb, as it will take over your garden if the flowers are allowed to develop fully (the flowers scatter the seeds). However, this plant is easy to dig up and move if it does end up invading other parts of your garden.

Chives are also a wonderful companion plant that deters pests. They’re a good friend to plant with carrots, celery, lettuce, peas, and tomatoes.

Types of Chives to Grow

The two species of chives commonly grown in home gardens are common chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and garlic chives (A. tuberosum): 

  • Common chives consist of clumps of small, slender bulbs that produce thin, tubular, blue-green leaves reaching 10-15 inches in height. The edible, flavorful flowers may be white, pink, purple, or red, depending on the variety. They can be grown in zones 3 to 9.
  • Garlic chives (also called Chinese chives) look similar to common chives, but their leaves are flatter, greener, and get to be about 20 inches in height. As their name suggests, their leaves have a mild garlic flavor (bulbs are more intense). Flowers are white, and are larger and less densely-clustered than those of common chives. Garlic chives are not quite as cold-hardy as common chives, so they are recommended for zones 4 to 9.
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Planting

Chives grow best in full sun, though they will tolerate light shade. Ideally, the soil should be moist, fertile, and well-draining. Before planting, incorporate 4 to 6 inches of well-composted organic matter. Work compost into the soil to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. (Read more about soil amendments and preparing the soil for planting.)

When to Plant Chives

  • Chives are considered a cool-season crop, meaning they grow best in the spring and fall. The harsher temperatures of summer usually cause them to go dormant until cool weather arrives again.
  • For a head start in colder regions, start chive seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost. (See local frost dates.) Transplants need good growth before being set in the garden.
  • Outdoors, sow seeds as soon as the soil is workable in the spring. They can take a few weeks to germinate, so don’t panic! For the best germination and growth, the temperature of the soil should be between 60º and 70ºF (15º and 21ºC).
  • Plant transplants outdoors once the threat of frost has passed.

How to Plant Chives

  • Sow seeds about 2 inches apart and no more than ¼ inch deep. Cover with a thin layer of soil. 
  • Once seedlings emerge, thin them so that plants are spaced between 4 to 6 inches apart in all directions.

Chives growing in the ground

Growing

How to Grow Chives

  • Minimal care is needed for fully grown, established plants.
  • Although chives are drought tolerant, it’s important to give them consistent watering throughout the growing season for high yields. Moisten the soil thoroughly when watering.
  • Chives’ small bulbs grow near the soil surface, so use mulch to conserve moisture and keep the weeds down.
  • For good production, top-dress with a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer in late spring or early summer if your soil is not already nutrient-rich.
  • After the flowers bloom, remove them so that the seeds aren’t spread throughout your garden.
  • Remember to divide the plants every 3 to 4 years in the spring. Chives are much more productive if divided regularly. Divide them into clumps of at least 10 small bulbs and allow divided plants to grow for several weeks before harvesting. 

Types

  • Garlic chives, to add a mild garlic flavor to any dish

Harvesting

How to Harvest Chives

  • Begin harvesting chive leaves about 30 days after you transplant or 60 days after seeding.
  • Be sure to cut the leaves down to the base when harvesting (within 1 to 2 inches of the soil). 
  • Harvest 3 to 4 times during the first year. In subsequent years, cut plants back monthly.
  • The chive plant will flower in late spring or early summer. The flowers are edible and taste best just after they have opened—they should look full and bright.

purple Chive flowers

How to Store Chives

  • Use chives when they’re fresh or frozen (freeze the leaves in an airtight bag). Dried chives lose their flavor.
  • Store chives in a cool place in a resealable container.
Gardening Products

Wit and Wisdom

Pests/Diseases

  • Bulb rots (caused by soilborne fungi)
  • White rot
  • Mildew
  • Rust
  • Smut
  • Fungal leaf spots (such as purple blotch and gray mold)
  • Onion fly
  • Thrips

Recipes

Mashed Potatoes With Chives
Herbs
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s ÃÛÌÒÁµÈË found each other. She leads digital content for the ÃÛÌÒÁµÈË website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

Tina (not verified)

5 years 5 months ago

I just moved my little chives from the starter tray into a larger pot but now they are looking a bit spindly and the ends are browning even though they are only a few inches tall. How can bring them back to life?

Any time you transplant a plant it goes into a period of shock. It needs to re-set its roots and settle in. Sometimes you can minimize this adjustment period by moving a plant with a large clump of soil around its roots. Now just give it time. It’s a perennial, so it should get over this and come back nicely.

Christine Tschirgi (not verified)

5 years 7 months ago

Hello, I live in Seattle Washington.

My Chives are blooming now in April. I've been wanting to divide and replant some into a different bed, but I can't figure out when to do it? Can I do it now, End of April, as I'm setting up all my new beds with transplants for the season? Or do I need to do it during a dormant phase? And in my climate - when would that be? This plant has been in my garden now 3 years - this will be it's 4th season and it' 4 times the size it was. It is the earliest to come up and the last plant to die out each year. I've got it in my strawberry bed - so once or twice each year I chop some of it up and distribute to keep pests at bay in the berries - totally works well as a companion plant!

Imrie Goller (not verified)

5 years 7 months ago

This is my first time planting chives from seed. They are coming up beautifully, but I've noticed that they seem to be growing like ingrown hairs, all bent over in half. One of them has pulled its own seed out of the soil. I haven't found anything online about this, so I don't know if this is normal or if something needs to be done. Should I try to replant the seed? Snip it off? Just leave it alone? Please advise.

It’s normal! Just leave them to grow :)

Joan (not verified)

6 years 5 months ago

Since the chive flowers are edible, ARE THE SEEDS EDIBLE?

umesh (not verified)

6 years 6 months ago

Im interested to know how to cultivate chives in India specifically Karnataka, Raichur district and some information about export of this chives

Terry Kline (not verified)

7 years 2 months ago

I live in a place with sandy soil we have planted regular chives and French chives.We planted them around apple trees.They have always have white flower tops and they have spread a lot thru the grass. We even have mowed them nice onion smell and they have very nice taste.We could sell them or sell the seeds.We have not used any fertilizer at all.They are probably organic by now.We have been here over 25 years and we had planted them soon after that.Can you tell me anything about them?And well we enjoy them so much they could replace our grass. And we would be very happy,the bees and monarch butterfly's are enjoying them right now.So we are helping them now, and that is a plus.So what is wrong about that?

Laura Heighway (not verified)

7 years 6 months ago

I like the flowers on the chives to look at. My husband keeps cutting them off because he said they are tough and it's the only way new shoots will grow. I am of the opinion that new shoots grow up anyway.