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I have a new website at http://www.kton.demon.co.uk/ if anyone is interested.
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Chives are another indispensable herb which should be grown in all gardens. Related to the onion, chives have aromatic, hollow, grass like leaves growing to 6 –8” high and beautiful purple pom pom flower heads in summer.
Chives grow virtually anywhere and are very easy to propagate. The plants quickly produce offsets which can be divided easily. One small pot from a garden centre could provide enough plants to edge a border within a couple of years.
Most people know that chopped chives can be used in salads, especially potato salad and as a garnish for soups etc but if you do get too many and they need thinning you can also use the spring onion like bulbs.
The flowers are also edible and actually seem to have a slightly stronger oniony taste than the leaves. A mixture of the pretty purple florets and chopped leaves makes quite a spectacular garnish – I think that it is particularly pretty on mushroom soup. The flowers also dry well for flower arranging if you’re into that sort of thing.
Most people seem to grow their herbs in special areas but chives deserve to spread around a bit. Apart from being a perfect edging plant to almost any kind of flowerbed they have special properties which make them particularly suited to growing under roses.
Chives are perfect companion plants to roses because they accumulate sulphur which has a natural fungicidal effect and helps to give protection from blackspot and other fungal diseases. They are also a natural insecticide and give protection against aphids and finally as an added bonus they increase the roses’ scent and the flowers attract beneficial insects. Because they die back in the winter the roses can still be mulched. They form very good ground cover eventually and no weeding will be necessary under prickly roses.
Chives can be beneficially grown also with chrysanthemums, sunflowers and tomatoes and help to prevent scab on apples and you can make an infusion with the leaves to spray plants affected with aphids. So as you can see it is a very useful plant to grow just about everywhere.
There is another variety of chives called Chinese chives which is also worth looking out for. While this plant is not quite so prolific it does have a rather nice subtle garlic flavour and delicate starry white flowers. These also make a nice addition to the garden and kitchen.
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I think you've convinced me to grow this one!Thanks.
anjib 11.05.2001 09:17
I planted some chive seeds about 9 years ago and they grew. I have moved house twice since then, and have dug them up and replanted them, they are still going strong. They get thicker tubes and stronger flavour every year, and the flowers look so beautiful. A friend of mine thought you had to remove the flower heads for them to re-grow, but I never have done. I have tried garlic chives, they tasted lovely but were more spindly and didn't seem so hardy. They died after a couple of years.
witchwaysup 29.03.2001 01:29
Thanks for the planting advice. One of my chive plants was moved from its space next to my favourite roses a couple of years ago. This opinion explains what went wrong with my roses! I will re-site one of the pots now!
Advantages: Wonderful smell, taste and goes perfectly with tomatoes for a divine salad sensation! Disadvantages: It's an annual that likes a but of sun. And I live in The Dark North!!!
phoenixgreen 26.05.2007 (25.05.2007)
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