Growing Chives: A Complete Profile

By Growing Home Greens Team · July 18, 2026

Chives are the easiest allium in the garden — a perennial clump that comes back every spring, tolerates cold well, and asks for almost nothing once it’s established.

What to expect

Chives can be started indoors or direct-sown, and either works: indoors about 8 weeks before your last frost for a head start, or direct-sown a couple weeks before that frost date since the seedlings tolerate cool soil fine. As a perennial in zones 3-10, an established clump returns each spring and slowly expands — many gardeners divide an overgrown clump every few years to keep it productive and to start new plants elsewhere. The purple flowers are edible too, though letting a lot of them go to seed can lead to volunteer seedlings popping up nearby.

Common problems

A clump that flowers heavily and then looks thin afterward is normal — cutting spent flower stalks back encourages fresh leaf growth instead of letting the plant put energy into seed. Because chives are an allium, avoid planting them right next to beans or peas: alliums inhibit the nitrogen-fixing bacteria those legumes depend on.

Where this fits in your garden

Chives share the same root-crop pest confusion benefit that carrots get from onions — see the full companion guide for chives. At 9 plants per square foot, they’re dense enough to tuck into a corner or edge in the Garden Designer, and since they’re perennial, that spot is a long-term commitment rather than one season’s crop.

Companion planting guide for Chives · Find your planting dates

Typically viable in USDA zones 3-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.

Method: Either — Start indoors for an earlier harvest, or direct-sow outside for less fuss — Chives tolerates either.

See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →

Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing).

Where to buy chives seeds

• Botanical Interests
• True Leaf Market
• Burpee
• High Mowing Organic Seeds

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See it growing

Search YouTube for "growing chives" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video — results vary and aren't vetted by us)