Allium schoenoprasum
Chives, rush leeks, appetites, fine herbs: this is the smallest and most discreet of the Allium family, but also the most common in kitchens. Its clumps of hollow stems regrow every spring without any effort, and its pink pom-poms make it one of the prettiest edible borders in the vegetable garden.
Characteristics:
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Fine, hollow leaves: fragrant, with a mild onion flavor, and best snipped raw.
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Edible flowers: spherical pink-purple umbels, highly decorative and attractive to pollinators.
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Very hardy: it tolerates temperatures down to -20 °C and returns every year without protection.
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Can be grown anywhere: vegetable garden, border, planter, pot, or windowsill.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: full sun or partial shade.
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Soil: moist, loose, fertile, and substantial. Unlike bulb onions, chives appreciate well-nourished soil that stays moist: adding compost produces fuller clumps and more tender leaves.
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Method: sow in spring or late summer, 1 cm deep, in pots or directly in the ground. Germination is somewhat slow; allow two to three weeks. See how to sow seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant in clumps of several plants spaced 20 cm apart—it has more impact when grouped than when planted alone. Perfect along a path or vegetable-bed border.
Care advice:
- Water regularly to keep the soil moist: this prevents the leaves from turning yellow and becoming tough.
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Useful tip: cut the entire clump back to 5 cm after flowering. It will regrow within fifteen days with fresh, tender foliage, two to three times per season.
- Divide the clump every 3 years in spring to rejuvenate it.
Harvesting advice:
- Cut the stems with scissors 2 cm above the soil, never by pinching them halfway up: cut ends turn yellow and weaken the clump.
- It freezes very well when snipped; drying, on the other hand, makes it lose most of its aroma.
Beneficial combinations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its pink pom-poms are highly visited by bees, bumblebees, and butterflies in spring—let part of the clump flower instead of cutting it all back.
- Its sulfur compounds naturally reduce pest pressure on neighboring crops.
Uses:
- Snipped raw and added at the last moment: salads, raw vegetables, soups, sauces, fresh cheeses, and omelets. Cooking destroys its aroma. Its flowers can be separated into florets to decorate salads, or used to flavor vinegar, which they turn pink.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few umbels to dry completely on the plant, then shake them over a container: the black seeds will come free from the capsules. Sow them quickly, as their germination rate drops after one year. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
A flowering, edible, and indestructible border.
