Chive Seeds
Aromatic, easy to grow and low maintenance
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Just £3.99
Key Features
Plant In Sunshine
Edible
Easy To Grow
Wildlife Friendly
Width: 30cm
Height: 40cm
Height: 40cm
- A hardy perennial – an essential addition to the herb garden or your windowsill.
- Mild onion flavoured leaves are perfect for dairy dishes, salads and many other dishes.
- The decorative flowers can also be eaten and make a pretty garnish.
- Attractive to garden pollinators and will also repel insect pests.
- Supplied as a packet of 500 (approx.) seeds ready to sow indoors or outdoors.
Plant Calendar
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Fruiting Time
Sowing Time
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Description
Easy to grow, this long-lived herbaceous perennial, which is part of the onion family, is an essential addition to the herb garden. The edible leaves have a mild onion-like flavour and make an irresistible garnish for potatoes, omelettes, fish, salads, soups and many other dishes. The pinky purple, star-shaped flowers are also edible and are best picked just before opening to add a pretty and savoury highlight to your dishes.
Chives can be grown indoors on your windowsill for year-round harvesting, although will grow more vigorously and achieve bigger plants when grown outdoors. As well as being a perfect choice for your vegetable beds, they can also make a great edging plant or provide some low-growing contrast in a mixed bed or border. They are equally happy growing in pots and containers. All they require is a moisture-retentive but well-drained fertile soil or compost in a sunny or semi-shaded position.
The flowers produce nectar in abundance, so will attract bees, butterflies and other beneficial pollinators to your garden, with blooms appearing successively over a long season. In addition, this herb’s slightly pungent aroma will repel insect pests such as carrot root fly, making it a great companion for vegetables or other herbs that are prone to infestation.
Sow indoors all year for your windowsill or for planting out from May to June. Or sow outdoors from March to May, in beds or containers directly where they are to crop, where they can be cut for culinary use from late spring through to the first frosts of autumn. Plants will grow less vigorously through the winter, when they will die back somewhat, although it may be possible to still cut some leaves fresh for the kitchen.
Supplied as a packet of 500 (approx.) seeds ready to sow indoors or outdoors in pots or directly into a bed or border. Grows to 40cm height by 30cm spread.
Top Tips
- Chives are decorative enough to be grown in flower borders or pots on the patio or balcony.
- If not harvesting the young flowers for culinary use, remove them from the plant as they start to fade.
- Chives are best used freshly cut, or they can be frozen by chopping finely and putting ice trays half filled with water, then freezing and storing until required.
Care Information
How to grow Chives
- Sow and grow indoors year-round for indoor crops. Sow 0.5cm (¼in) deep, in small pots of compost. Water well and place in a warm position. A temperature of 15-20°C (60-68°F) is ideal. Seedlings usually appear in 14-21 days. Grow on in cooler but not cold conditions. Fore earlier outdoor crops, sow indoors from March to May. Gradually accustom plants to outside conditions (avoid frosts), before planting out 20cm (8in) apart during May and June. Alternatively, plants can be grown on a light windowsill.
- Or sow outdoors, March to May, where they are to crop, 0.5cm (¼in) deep, directly into finely prepared, warm, well-drained soil that has already been watered. Thin seedlings to 20cm (8in) apart.
- Harvesting: Harvest by cutting leaves once the plant reaches 15cm (6in) tall (outdoor crops from June). Pick a few leaves from each plant, snipping close to the base of the plants, so they regrow quickly.
Aftercare
- Keep well-watered, especially in hot weather.
- Feed each spring with a general-purpose, granular fertiliser.
- Trim plants in autumn to keep them tidy and to promote new growth in the spring.
- Divide plants every 3-5 years in spring to maintain vigorous growth and rejuvenate the clumps. Lift clumps and cut with a sharp knife, dividing into several smaller plants.
Delivery Information
Please allow us 3-5 working days to dispatch your order. Pre-ordered items will be sent as soon as possible after the date quoted and we'll generally ship your entire order with your pre-ordered items. When your order is dispatched, we'll send you another email with details of how to track it.
Most orders are sent on a fully-tracked courier service with Yodel. To avoid perishable items being stuck at depots and deteriorating, no signature is required, and our courier is asked to leave your order in a safe place on your property.
We'll send a tracking link when we dispatch your order, so you know when its due to arrive. Please note, once delivered we cannot be held responsible for loss or theft from your property. If you have any specific delivery instructions, please let us know - there's an option to enter a short message for the courier at the checkout.
Smaller, lighter, single-item orders may be sent through the post with Royal Mail - in which case no tracking is available.
Our experienced nursery team will always send your plants nursery fresh in the perfect condition to thrive when you plant them, so although most plants are very tough and will not be affected by all but the most extreme frosts or heatwaves, we avoid dispatching the most perishable plants if extreme weather is forecast, or over Bank Holiday weekends.
Please note, we cannot guarantee delivery on a certain day or time. Delivery to outlying postcode areas may take 1-2 days longer, dependent on your location.
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