Herb / Cool season
Common Chives
Perennial kitchen edging, containers, and pollinator flowers.
Mild onion-flavored leaves and edible purple blooms.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 80
- Germination temperature
- 55-75F
- Seed depth
- 0.25 inches
- Spacing
- 6 inches
- Row spacing
- 12 inches
- Start method
- Either
Frost-date timing
- Indoor start
- 8 weeks before last frost
- Direct sow
- 14 days before last frost
- Transplant
- on last frost
- Fall planting
- 10 weeks before first frost
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow or transplant depending on your soil warmth, bed readiness, and frost-risk plan.
- How much space?
- 6 inches in-row spacing, 12 inches between rows, and 0.25 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use this as part of a diverse flowering or herb planting, and treat companion claims as site-specific rather than guaranteed pest control.
- Common failure modes?
- Divide clumps when they become crowded and less productive. Moderate moisture for steady leaf growth. Average, well-drained soil.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Moderate moisture for steady leaf growth.
- Soil
- Average, well-drained soil.
- Watch
- Divide clumps when they become crowded and less productive.
- herb
- perennial
- allium
- containers
Browse context
- Herb Catalog Category collection
- Onion Family Rotation and family context
- Cool Season Seeds Season collection
- Either Seeds Start-method collection
- Container-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- Beginner-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- High Pollinator Value Seeds Practical trait collection
- Fall-Planting Seeds Practical trait collection
- Part-Shade-Tolerant Seeds Practical trait collection
Related varieties
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- Snowball Y Cauliflower Mustard family · Cool season · 70 days
- Blue Boy Bachelor's Button Aster family · Cool season · 65 days
Source: Seed Savers seed saving guide