How to Grow Garlic Chives
Garlic Chives At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Herb
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Frost Tolerance
Frost Hardy
Cold Hardiness
Survives to -34°C
Plant Family
Amaryllidaceae
Growing Season
Cool Season
Plant Lifecycle
Perennial
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Sow in spring, about 2 weeks before your last frost, once you can work the soil. Sow a pinch of seeds 1 cm deep in small clumps 15 cm apart and keep the soil damp. They are slow, sprouting in 14 to 21 days, and look like thin grass at first.
Garlic chives are a different plant from common chives: flat leaves, a mild garlic taste and white star-shaped flowers in late summer. Once settled they come back every spring for years, but they drop seed freely, so cut off the faded flowers if you do not want them everywhere.
When To Start
Garlic Chives likes cool weather. Sow it in early spring, as soon as the ground can be worked.
We do not have exact sowing dates for this one yet.
When should you plant Garlic Chives?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Garlic Chives Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Garlic Chives Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Sow garlic chives outdoors in spring
2 weeks before your last frost
Snip garlic chive leaves about 3 cm above the soil
60 days after your last frost· every year
Cut off faded garlic chive flowers before they drop seed
100 days after your last frost· every year· optional
Did you water your garlic chives seedlings today? Keep the top of the soil damp until they are up and growing.
About 1 days after you plant it
Time to thin the garlic chives seedlings: snip the extras at soil level so each one has room to grow.
About 31 days after you plant it
Hello! Keep the soil lightly moist while your garlic chives sprout. They can take a few weeks.
About 30 days after you plant it
Nice progress! Pull weeds around your garlic chives, since the thin young leaves are easy to crowd out.
About 90 days after you plant it
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Expect sprouts in 14–21 days
Growing Tips
- 1Give garlic chives full sun, though they cope with a little shade.
- 2Plant them in ordinary soil with some compost mixed in, in a bed or a good-sized pot.
- 3Water when the top few cm of soil are dry, since they handle short dry spells well.
- 4Spread a little compost or worm castings around the clump each spring and after a big harvest.
- 5Cut the flower heads off once they fade, before they turn to seed, so the plants do not spread all over your garden.
- 6Split crowded clumps every 3 to 4 years to keep the leaves thick and tender.
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
40 cm
Mature Height
20 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Step 4
Harvesting
When to Pick
Snip leaves anytime once established; flowers are edible too
How to Harvest
- 1In the first year, snip lightly so the young clump can grow strong.
- 2From then on, cut the flat leaves with scissors about 3 cm above the soil whenever you need them.
- 3Cut a whole bunch at once rather than a leaf here and there, and it grows back in a few weeks.
- 4The white flowers and young flower buds are edible too, with a mild garlic taste.
- 5Use the leaves fresh, or chop and freeze them, since they lose their flavour when dried.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Garlic chives come true from seed and do not cross with common chives or onions, so saving seed is easy. Let a few flower heads stay on the plant until they dry and the small pods split to show black seeds. Snip the heads into a paper bag, shake out the seeds and let them dry a few more days. Store them labelled in a cool, dark, dry spot, and sow them within 1 to 2 years, since onion family seeds do not keep long.
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