Demanding little but a sunny, well-drained location, chives are a hardy perennial that flourishes throughout the growing season. Along with mint, it is an easy starter plant for beginning gardeners.
Chives are among the first herbs to appear in early spring and among the first to produce blossoms, which pull double duty as decoration and taste enhancers in food.
Members of the Allium family (which includes onions and garlic,) chives are native to North America, Europe and Asia, where they grew wild for centuries. Chives were known to have been cultivated in China more than 4,000 years ago, and Marco Polo described their virtues in accounts of his travels there.
In Europe, chives were a staple plant in monastery gardens, and were sometimes used as edging in gardens grown by North American colonists. Garden or onion chives, botanically known as Allium schoenoprasum, are the most common form of this herb and are easily found at garden centers.
Seasoning food
Along with chervil, parsley and tarragon, garden chives make up the classic French seasoning fines herbes. Used alone or with other herbs, garden chives offer a mild onion flavor that complements many foods such as eggs, cheese, onions, potatoes and tomatoes.
Their pink, edible flowers in early summer have a pleasing, oniony bite, and can be sprinkled on salads and hot dishes. Used as ties for bundles of steamed asparagus, beans, sliced summer squash or carrots, chives also play a decorative and functional role.
Rich in vitamins and minerals, chives are believed to stimulate the appetite and help digestion.
Varied choices
These days, different cultivars of A. schoenoprasum are available to serve the varied needs of gardeners and cooks.
Developed in Switzerland for indoor growers, A. schoenoprasum 'Grolau' is sometimes called "windowsill chives." It has a strong flavor and thick leaves.
The cultivar A. schoenoprasum 'Sterile' also is recommended for indoor growing as well as for those who raise edible flowers. (The flowers of this variety do not develop seeds and therefore remain edible longer than other varieties of chives.) A. schoenoprasum 'Sterile' is also known by the trade name Profusion and is an introduction of the well-known Canadian herb nursery Richter's.
Another cultivar, Staro, has a thicker leaf that is said to be good for freezing and drying, while Fine-Leaf is a dainty European strain intended for fresh uses.
Garlic or Chinese chives, botanically known as A. tuberosum, are somewhat less well known than garden chives but well worth seeking out. Their flat green leaves have a mild garlic flavor that's fabulous chopped and added to cream cheese, butter or as a garnish on soups or salads.
Garlic chives also produce sweetly scented white flowers in late summer that make a nice addition to an herbal bouquet. (There's also a harder-to-find variety with mauve flowers.)
Another form of chives, A. senescens 'Glaucum,' has unusual twisted blue-gray leaves and is commonly known as cowlick chives, curly chives, or German garlic. Although the leaves are edible and have a mild onion scent, this plant is considered ornamental and is not usually used for culinary purposes.
Easy to grow
Chives can be easily grown from seeds, but can take up to a month to germinate and then can't be extensively harvested during the first year.
Starter plants, at least for the more common varieties, can be easily obtained from local garden centers or a friend's garden. Once established, chives tend to quickly multiply and self-seed if the flowers are left to mature. The clumps should be divided every three years.
Although cut chives can be dried or stored in the freezer, nothing beats the taste of the freshly snipped herb.
And because chives are easily grown inside in containers, there's no reason to do without them during the winter. Dig up a clump before fall (or buy a plant) and pot it up in a plastic planter that's suitable for food crops.
Leave the pot outside until the weather turns cold. (A clay or ceramic planter would likely crack.) Wait until the green tops die back and the soil freezes, then let the plant sit outside for a few more weeks. When the pot is brought inside and placed in a sunny spot, the chives will have been fooled into thinking winter is over and should sprout in a few weeks.
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