Crops › Chives
How to grow Chives
in the UK
Sow March to April, plant out May, harvest June to September. About 60 days from seed to plate.
Chives are a cracking little herb, proper easy to grow on the plot or in a pot. They just keep on giving, you know, and are perfect for a bit of a lift to your cooking with their mild onion flavour.
Sowing
For chives, you can get cracking in March or April. If you're sowing indoors, pop a few seeds into a small pot or module, about 5mm deep. Keep 'em warm on a windowsill or in a cold frame, like, and they'll germinate in a couple of weeks, usually within 60 days to a first snip. If you're going direct outdoors, wait till the soil warms up a bit, April usually. Sprinkle seeds thinly in a shallow drill, then cover lightly. Thin 'em later if they're too close, aiming for about 15cm between plants. Remember, the app mentions zones, but for us in the UK, March/April is a good shout.
Growing on
Once your indoor seedlings have a couple of true leaves, you can prick 'em out and put a few together in bigger pots, or plant out if the weather's decent and there's no risk of a proper late frost – though chives are hardy, mind. If you've bought plug plants, they're dead easy, just plant them straight out about 15cm apart. They do really well in containers too, like a big pot near the back door, so you can just nip out and snip what you need.
Looking after it
Chives aren't too fussy, to be honest. Keep them watered, especially in dry spells, and they'll be happy. A bit of general purpose feed once or twice in the season won't hurt, but it's not essential. If they start to look a bit tired or go to seed, a good chop will often encourage a flush of lovely new growth. You can even cut them right back to the ground in autumn.
What goes wrong
Slugs can have a nibble on young plants, so keep an eye out, especially if it's damp, but they don't usually bother mature clumps. Aphids sometimes show up too, but a good spray of water or a bit of soapy water usually sorts them. Marigolds and nasturtiums are good companions, like I say, they can help keep the pests away from your chives and other veg. Nothing too serious ever seems to bother them on my plot, mind.
Harvest
You'll be harvesting from June right through to September, sometimes even longer if it's mild. Just snip off what you need with scissors, close to the base, and they'll grow back for another pick. About 60 days from sowing to your first snip, so you're not waiting long at all. If you get a bit of a glut, they freeze really well – just chop 'em up and pop 'em in a bag. Otherwise, keep 'em in the fridge, wrapped in a damp paper towel, for a few days.
Honestly, I always plant a big clump of chives right by the back door; it's proper handy for just nipping out and grabbing a few for an omelette or a salad, saves a trip to the allotment.
Dates for your plot
Type the first half of your postcode and the plant-out advice shifts to your area's typical frost dates.
Varieties, and whether the club would grow them again
| Variety | Club verdict |
|---|---|
| Common Chives This is your classic Common Chives variety, a real dependable performer on the plot. It gives a good, consistent yield all season long, perfect for everyday use. | No club votes yet |
| Staro Staro is a robust chive variety that thrives when sown directly into the soil. It's a reliable choice for a cracking outdoor crop with good vigour. | No club votes yet |
| Grolau Grolau is a popular maincrop chive, known for its strong growth and upright habit. It's a fantastic variety for continuous harvests throughout the season. | No club votes yet |
| Polyvert Polyvert offers excellent yields and is a really reliable choice for outdoor growing. This variety is known for its good disease resistance and steady production. | No club votes yet |
| Purly Purly is a beautiful chive variety with a lovely, fine leaf, making it great for garnishing. It’s a good choice for growing indoors on a windowsill or in pots. | No club votes yet |
| Fine Leaved As the name suggests, this Fine Leaved variety produces delicate, slender chives with a mild flavour. It's a top choice for a refined culinary touch and looks great in the garden. | No club votes yet |
| Medium Leaf This Medium Leaf variety offers a good balance between flavour and texture, perfect for most kitchen uses. It's a reliable performer that's easy to grow, indoors or out. | No club votes yet |
| Nelly Nelly is a very productive chive variety, providing a continuous supply of fresh leaves. It performs particularly well when sown directly into the garden soil. | No club votes yet |
| Prairie Blossom Prairie Blossom is not only a reliable chive for harvesting, but it also produces lovely edible flowers. It's a great choice if you want to add a bit of colour and extra interest to your plot. | No club votes yet |
| Profusion Profusion is an excellent choice for a vigorous, high-yielding chive plant. It's a particularly good variety for getting a big crop from an outdoor sowing. | No club votes yet |
| Siberian Garlic Chives Siberian Garlic Chives offer a distinct garlic flavour, a real alternative to standard chives. This variety is very hardy and provides a different culinary dimension. | No club votes yet |
| Geisha Geisha is a sturdy and fast-growing chive variety, great for a quick harvest. It's a reliable performer that does well when sown directly into the soil. | No club votes yet |
| Bohemia Bohemia is a lovely chive variety, known for its consistent growth and good flavour. It's a solid choice for indoor growing, giving you fresh chives even when the weather's grim. | No club votes yet |
| Tavor Tavor is a strong, upright chive that offers good resistance to common issues. It's a dependable variety that performs exceptionally well in the garden. | No club votes yet |
| Forescate Forescate is a cracking chive variety, offering a good flavour and a compact habit. It's a great choice for growing in smaller spaces or pots, especially if starting indoors. | No club votes yet |
Votes are members rating varieties in their Seed Tin, one vote per gardener. Tap a variety for the full page and where to buy.
Buy Chives seeds
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Cook the harvest
A silky, deeply flavoured potato soup where chives do far more than garnish — half go in during cooking to build a grassy, onion-forward base, and the rest are stirred through just before serving to keep that fresh brightness. Proper, unfussy soup that tastes exactly like a summer garden. Serve hot or cold depending on the weather.
45 min · easyA silky, vivid green chive butter sauce that would be worth making just to eat with a spoon, here spooned generously over crisp-skinned pan-fried trout fillets. The sauce uses a whole bunch of chives blended into the butter, so the flavour is bold and the colour is stunning. This is proper weeknight cooking that feels like a restaurant meal.
22 min · easyThese gyoza-style dumplings are packed with a fragrant filling of minced pork and a very generous amount of fresh chives — the chive flavour is bold, grassy and absolutely central to the whole thing. They're pan-fried to a golden crisp base then steamed in the pan to cook through, giving you that satisfying contrast of textures. It is a proper weeknight project that comes together in under 30 minutes if you use ready-made dumpling wrappers.
30 min · easyA classic compound butter loaded with fresh chives, a touch of garlic and lemon that melts in a golden pool over a freshly grilled steak, basting it as it rests. The chives are the defining flavour here — used in such quantity that the butter is genuinely green and every slice of steak picks up their mild, fresh allium note. This is the simplest and perhaps the best steak sauce.
20 min · easyWatch for, and grow alongside
Companions: marigolds, nasturtium
Questions people ask
When do you sow Chives in the UK?
Sow Chives from March to April. Plant out May, after the last frost.
How long does Chives take from sowing to harvest?
Roughly 60 days, with the harvest June to September.
Which Chives varieties do gardeners grow again?
Club members rate every variety they grow. This page shows the grow-again votes for Common Chives, Staro, Grolau, Polyvert and more.
Track your Chives from packet to plate
Sowing reminders and harvest forecasts for your own frost dates, the Seed Tin, Scan Centre for any label or packet, and the Potty Mouth Garden Club. Free to start.
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 3 September 2026.