Fothergill's Chive Seeds

Details:

• Botanical Name: Allium schoenoprasum, a premium, highly reliable selection within the culinary herb family.
• Plant Class: Hardy Perennial, forming a permanent, expanding rootstock that returns with increased vigor, thickness, and flavour every single spring.
• Mild Delicate Onion Flavour: Yields slender, hollow, grass-like green stems packed with a clean, refreshing, and mild onion taste. They make an irresistible, gourmet raw garnish when snipped over baked potatoes, creamy soups, omelettes, and fresh summer salads.
• Beautiful Edible Blossoms: Left to mature in mid-summer, the plants produce highly ornamental, globe-shaped pale purple flower heads. These blossoms are completely edible, adding a delightful mild onion crunch and a pop of colour when tossed into salads.
• Powerful Companion Plant: Highly celebrated as a natural protector in the vegetable plot; the distinct, pungent essential oils emitted by its foliage help to confuse and naturally deter destructive pests like Carrot Root Fly, making it an invaluable partner for interplanting alongside carrots, parsnips, and celery.
• Path Edging Architecture: Naturally forms neat, upright, and non-invasive architectural tufts reaching a mature height of roughly 30cm (12in). Its tidy, uniform growth habit makes it a brilliant choice for defining cottage garden paths, border fronts, and mixed herb containers.
• Pollinator Magnet: The nectar-rich purple summer flower globes act as a premier fuel station for beneficial insects, drawing honeybees, bumblebees, and butterflies into your garden.

Care Instructions:

• Sowing Position: Start seeds indoors from March to May for an early start, sowing thinly into pots or module trays of moist seed compost and covering with a fine 0.5cm layer of compost. Alternatively, sow seeds directly outdoors from April to June into finely raked, well-drained, and weed-free soil. Position in full sun or partial shade.
• Planting Out & Spacing: Once indoor-raised seedlings reach 5–10cm tall, harden them off gradually before planting them out into their final positions in late spring. Plant out in small tufted groups or clumps, spacing each group roughly 20–25cm apart to allow them room to expand.
• Moisture & Maintenance: Chives are incredibly low-maintenance but prefer a fertile, moisture-retentive soil. Keep the soil or container compost evenly damp, especially during hot, dry summer spells. To keep the foliage tender, crisp, and continuously productive, cut back any tough flower stems after blooming.
• Harvesting & Division: Use clean kitchen scissors to snip the green stems from the outside of the clump, cutting them down close to the base to stimulate fresh, rapid regrowth. Every 3 to 4 years in autumn or early spring, lift and divide large clumps into smaller sections using a spade, replanting them around the garden to instantly rejuvenate your stock.