garlic chives seed

ClareBroommaker's picture

I've just come in from collecting garlic chive seed. Want some? I'll mail it to you within the US.

Garlic chives are grown for their flat, narrow leaves which, of course, have a garlic taste. They are exceedingly easy to grow, requiring no special care. Harvest by just pulling the leaves off or cutting if you like. Easy peasy.

I think they are best planted by simply tossing the seed into the area you'd like them to grow, then not even weeding, or mowing. The soil does not even need to be turned first. They are perennial and will spread by both their bulbs and seed. I like to see them at the base of a rural mailbox where they bloom (28 inches tall) in late summer / early autumn. The base of a tree with high branches that let light hit the ground, the rim of a ditch, along the base of a fence where you don't like to closely mow are good places. Now, you can mow over them several times or harvest them to the ground and they will regrow. But garlic chives do nicely if you just want them in a wilder spot. These root very shallowly so deep soil is not necessary, nor is particularly rich soil.

Mine are grown between tomatoes, in a bed with irises and daylilies, along the edge of a walkway, and under an oak, where the leaves grow small and tender, the flower stalks short (6-8 inches)

I don't recommend planting them too close to a door or window that will be open in late winter, because as the previous year's foliage rots, it stinks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_tuberosum

Blueberry's picture

Hope you get some takers on your seed offer? Started off with a few plants 30+ years ago Mrs B thinks of it as a must have item.