Growing Chives in Scotland: The Complete Guide

Allium schoenoprasum

Chives ask for almost nothing and give you something every month of the growing season: a clump planted once comes back every year, with fresh green snips ready as early as March.

Cut the leaves 5cm from the base with scissors, never pulled, and they regrow within weeks. The purple flowers in early summer are edible, taste of mild onion, and make any salad look deliberate. A single clump by the kitchen door, or along the edge of a vegetable bed where their onion scent might confuse a carrot fly, is all the chive investment you will ever need to make.

Why chives suit Scotland

A Scottish summer, cool and damp, gives you lush tender leaves rather than tough woody ones, a genuine growing-condition advantage rather than mere tolerance. Chives are in the allium family, sharing a pest list with onions and leeks; a four to five year rotationMoving each crop family to different ground each year, on a multi-year cycle, so pests and diseases that build up in soil don't get a repeat host. Full definition → away from other alliums keeps soil-borne diseases from building up, though a single clump in a border is unlikely to attract serious trouble.

Varieties

Only two chives are grown for the kitchen, common and garlic, and neither holds AGMThe RHS's Award of Garden Merit: a UK-wide trials award for reliable performance, not a Scotland-specific recommendation. Full definition →. The standard kitchen chive is the one to grow.

Also worth considering

Best Chive Varieties for Scotland → compares all named chive varieties head-to-head, with the practical detail that doesn't fit in a summary card.

Site and planting

Chives want sun or light shade and well-drained soil. They grow well in the ground, in raised beds, or in pots. A pot 20cm wide on a sunny windowsill gives you fresh chives through winter if you bring it indoors before the first frost.

Plant young plants in spring. Space them 15 to 20cm apart. Firm in and water well. You can also raise chives from seed, sown indoors in early spring or directly outdoors in spring. Sow thinly in small pots of peat-freeCompost made without peat, which is harvested from a slow-forming, carbon-storing wetland habitat that peat extraction damages. Full definition → seed compost and keep at room temperature. Seedlings are slow at first but quickly catch up. A seed-raised plant will be ready to harvest lightly in its first summer and fully from its second year onward.

Care through the season

Water young plants during dry spells while they establish. Once established, chives in the ground rarely need watering except in prolonged drought. Potted chives need regular water through the growing season.

Harvesting: cut the leaves about 5cm from the base with scissors. Never pull them. Harvest from late spring through autumn, cutting regularly to encourage fresh growth. The flavour is best before the plant flowers. After the purple flowers fade, cut the whole clump back to 5cm. A fresh flush of leaves will appear within two weeks.

DividingPropagating a clump-forming perennial by digging it up and splitting it into several smaller pieces, each with roots and shoots attached. Full definition →: every three to four years in spring, dig up the clump and split it into several pieces. Replant the healthy outer sections and discard the woody centre. This renews the plant and gives you free new clumps for other spots in the garden.

Common problems

• Leek rust appears as orange spots on the leaves in wet summers. Cut affected leaves to the ground and bin them. The plant regrows. Good spacing and airflow reduce the risk.
• Clumps dying in the centre means the plant is overdue for division. Split it in spring and replant the healthy outer sections.
• Allium leaf miner larvae tunnel through the leaves, leaving white trails. Cover with insect-proof mesh in spring. Less common in Scotland than further south.

Common questions

Sources