Price range: £1.85 through £80.00
Popular perennial herb with a mild-onion flavour for use in soups and salads. Prefers cooler temperatures to germinate. Leaves grow wider in the second year.
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Chives
Allium schoenoprasum
Approx. 800 seeds per gram
A member of the Allium family, like onions and garlic, chives have fine hollow leaves with a wonderful fresh, mildly onion like flavour. This perennial herb is easy to grow and small enough to do well in pots. The flower is a pretty cluster of purple tubes, loved by bees and edible too. They have been used to companion plant with apples and roses where they are said to help combat scab and black spot. This anti-fungal property is the reason for using chive tea as a spray against mildew on cucumbers and gooseberries.
How to grow:
Sow a few seeds per pot or module undercover from February, the seedlings look a bit like grass. Grow on until the plants are about 8 cm tall and pot on or plant out. Chives like a rich, moist soil in a sunny spot or semi-shade. They are very suitable to make a border to your herb or vegetable garden. Sow seed direct from March until September into well prepared ground. Thin to leave clumps with a 15 cm space between. The plants die down during the winter and start to sprout again very early Spring. Divide clumps if they get too big. Cut the flowers off to encourage leaf production.
Pests and diseases:
Chives are not effected by any major pests or diseases although rust can be a problem.
How to use:
Cut the fresh leaves and chop them. Use them in soups, and salads. Add them to vinaigrette and potato salad. They go very well with cream cheese or added to a herb butter. They can be chopped and mixed with a little water and frozen in ice-cube containers. Mix with parsley, tarragon and chervil for Fines herbes. Use the flowers to decorate salads.