Chives are a popular culinary herb, valued for their mild onion flavor and culinary versatility. Home gardeners often wonder if these perennial plants are invasive. Understanding their growth habits is key to managing them in a garden. This article explores how chives spread and provides control strategies.
Understanding Chive Growth Habits
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are perennial plants that form dense, grass-like clumps. These plants propagate through two primary mechanisms: underground bulbet division and self-seeding. Underground bulbets naturally divide, expanding the original clump. This natural multiplication can lead to a single plant doubling in volume in a year.
Chives also spread through seeds. Their purple or white flowers produce small, black seeds that fall to the ground. These seeds germinate, establishing new chive plants in unintended areas. While not ecologically invasive, their aggressive spreading can lead them to “escape their boundaries” within a cultivated garden. They can quickly occupy available space if not managed, leading some gardeners to perceive them as invasive in a domestic context.
Managing Chive Spread
Controlling chive spread requires addressing both underground expansion and self-seeding. Growing chives in containers is an effective strategy to restrict their growth. Pots physically contain bulbets, limiting spread through soil. Terracotta pots, with their porous material, offer good breathability for the plant.
Deadheading, removing flower stalks before they produce seeds, is another technique. Chive flowers are edible and can be harvested for culinary use or as a garnish. By snipping off spent blooms, gardeners prevent unwanted seedlings from popping up throughout the garden bed. This encourages more foliage production, leading to a healthier, more productive plant.
Dividing chive clumps every two to four years controls spread and invigorates the plant. This involves digging up the clump, separating it into smaller sections with healthy roots and shoots, then replanting or sharing. Dividing chives is best done in early spring or fall when the plant is not actively growing. Strategic planting in dedicated herb beds or easily monitored areas also prevents them from overtaking other plants.
Benefits of Growing Chives
Despite spreading tendencies, chives offer advantages. Their mild onion-like flavor makes them a versatile culinary herb, enhancing a variety of dishes from eggs and baked potatoes to soups, salads, and meats. The entire plant, including leaves and flowers, is edible. Add fresh chives toward the end of cooking to preserve their delicate flavor.
Beyond culinary uses, chives add aesthetic appeal with grass-like foliage and globe-shaped blooms. These flowers are visually appealing and attract beneficial insects. Chive blossoms attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, providing an early season food source. Their oniony scent deters pests like carrot flies, Japanese beetles, slugs, and aphids, making them valuable companion plants.
Removing Unwanted Chives
To remove unwanted chives, focus on extracting the plant and its underground structures. Manual digging works for smaller infestations. Loosen the soil, ideally after watering, and carefully dig out the entire chive clump, ensuring all bulbets and root fragments are removed. Remaining root or bulb pieces can regrow, requiring persistent removal of new sprouts.
For widespread growth in lawns or large garden beds, other approaches may be necessary. Regularly mowing or trimming chive foliage to ground level prevents flowering and starves underground bulbs by inhibiting photosynthesis. Herbicides like 2,4-D or glyphosate can be effective, but apply carefully to avoid harming desired plants. Dispose of removed chive plants and seeds in yard waste or sealed bags, not compost, to prevent further spread.