Chives

Light and exposure

Chives enjoy the sun and also make do with light partial shade. In the sun they give firmer, more fragrant stems, in partial shade they stay tender but a little less flavourful.

In a pot on a balcony or a windowsill, they simply ask for light and a little sun during the day. They are one of the easiest herbs to succeed with in a container, provided you do not let them dry out.

Watering

Chives like cool, steady soil. Water without excess but without letting the earth dry out, especially in summer when a lack of water makes the stems yellow and harden.

In a pot, the soil dries quickly and calls for more frequent watering. Chives that yellow at the leaf tips in high summer are most often thirsty. Cut the clump quite short then and water, and it comes back with fresh, tender stems.

Soil and repotting

Ordinary garden soil, loose and enriched with compost, is largely enough for them. They prefer soil that stays cool but well drained, they do not like standing water in winter.

In a pot, a quality vegetable compost with good drainage at the bottom does the job. Every two or three years the clump wears out and thins in the centre: that is the sign it needs dividing and replanting in soil freshened with compost.

Temperature and humidity

Chives are a fully hardy perennial: the species is recognised down to USDA zone 3, able to take continental cold of around -35 °C. They cope just as well with mild, damp winters and their alternating freeze and thaw, often harder on plants than steady dry cold. In a temperate climate winter is therefore never a real risk for them, and no protection is needed. The foliage disappears in autumn, the rootstock spends the winter dormant underground, then starts up again at the first mild spells of late winter.

They are in fact one of the very first herbs to reappear, often several weeks before the rest of the vegetable garden. This hardiness makes them a mainstay of the garden: once established, they return each year, a little wider, without your having to worry about them. The cold does not kill them, it is even useful: a well marked winter rest brings a more vigorous restart and a more generous flowering the following season than chives that never really stopped growing, grown indoors all year for instance. At the other end of the thermometer, lasting heat above about 30 °C sends them semi-dormant: they slow down, their stems harden, and they pick up again once the temperature falls.

Pruning and upkeep

Harvest by cutting the stems at the base, two or three centimetres from the ground, rather than pinching the tips. The clump then comes back clean and vigorous. Always cut a good handful at once, this stimulates regrowth better than nibbling leaf by leaf.

During the season, a clean cut of the whole clump regenerates it: the stems that grow back are more tender. The flowers are edible, but if you want to favour the foliage, cut the flowering stems, because once it has run to flower the plant slows the production of tender leaves.

Pests and diseases

Chives are little prone to disease. The main trouble in a damp climate is leek rust, Puccinia allii, which also affects the other alliums: small orange pustules appear on the stems. Cut and remove the affected parts, the regrowth is generally healthy.

Powdery mildew can also felt the leaves white in mild, damp weather. The onion fly sometimes attacks the rootstock. On the whole, a regularly divided clump, airy and not over-watered, stays vigorous and keeps the problems at bay.

Propagation

The simplest and quickest way to propagate chives is by clump division. In spring or early autumn, dig up an established clump, separate it into several splits of a few bulblets each and replant them at once. Each split forms a new clump.

Sowing is possible but slower: sow in spring, germination takes two to three weeks and it takes a whole season to get a usable clump. Division remains the handiest route, all the more so as it also rejuvenates the old plants that thin out.

Month-by-month care calendar

Green Hub tips

• Cut the stems at the base, never the tip: a clump cut back cleanly comes back more tender than nibbling leaf by leaf.
• Divide the clump every two or three years in spring. It thins in the centre as it ages, and division rejuvenates it.
• The pink flowers are edible and treat the bees, but cut them off if you mainly want tender foliage.
• Bring a pot onto a windowsill in autumn: chives still give a few stems there in the depths of winter.