JayPoc
Greener Thumb
Posts: 769
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:00 pm
Location: Virginia, The mountains Zone 6a/6b

chives going to seed

I have a large patch of chives that were essentially volunteers last year (I think they are garlic chives). They "escaped" and got loose in the garden from a potted chive I picked up in a plant swamp.

Anyway, The plant seemed to multiply after dying back over the winter...when they came back this year, there were more than last year. But now they have gone to seed (they did not last year). Does this mean they are done, or can I expect them to come back again for a third year? I saved seed, so I can replant if I need to. Thoughts?

Thanks, as always!

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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

If they are garlic chives -- thin flat strappy leaves, smells like garlic -- they are perennial in my garden and will claim more and more territory every year. I have resorted to digging a trench around them to keep them from taking over.

You can eat the scapes while still closed as well as the flowers scattered over salad and soup, pasta, etc. Immature seed pods while tender are tasty too. Just trim off the hard wiry flower and pod stems (actually it's the opposite -- I hold the whole thing and clip them off over the food or into a bowl with kitchen scissors).

The bees and beneficial insects love the flowers so I let what I don't eat bloom.

I have been tossing the mature seeds around the base of my fruit trees and garden fence where the bunnies like to come in from as well as odd corners of the garden to colonize.

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I guess it matters where you live. I have grown garlic chives and garden chives for years. Mine grow in clumps that keep expanding slowly. I need to divide the clump before the center dies out or I can lose the entire clump. My chives will bloom but I really don't have them seeding everywhere so I don't get volunteers. They actually don't bloom that much and I try to collect the seeds when they do so I can make more of them.

theforgottenone1013
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Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:35 pm
Location: SE Michigan, Zone 5b/6a

The plants will come back, doesn't matter what type of chives they are.

It's easy to tell regular chives apart from garlic chives. Regular chives have round, hollow stems with pink pom pom like blossoms and bloom in late spring. Garlic chives have flat leaves with white flower umbels and bloom in late summer. My experience has been that garlic chives like to spread by seed more so than regular chives.

-Rodney



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