PlantFiles: Garlic Chives, Oriental Garlic, Nira, Chinese Chives, Chinese Leek, Flat Chives
Allium tuberosum

Extremely invasive. The worst thing in the world at the base of some nice rose plants. Can't kill it. Stinky.
Only redeeming factor is that several kinds of "good" wasps are attracted to the flowers.

Planted 2 2" pots in the yard in filtered sun about 7 years ago. Watered them occasionally the first few months; after that, they were on their own. They have bloomed and gradually increased until each is about 12" in diameter, but I haven't experienced the invasiveness--maybe because I deadhead. They survived the 2011 Texas drought with no problem.

i keep it in a pot and trim it regularly...so no problem with spreading out of bounds. i use it in the kitchen in place of garlic for many dishes.

An all purpose plant. Works in every situation. You can eat it, attract butterflies with it, deter pests, and use it as a companion plant to hide daffodil leaves. It does spread easily but all you have to do is pull up the ones you don't want.

There are two types of garlic chives: The short ones with smaller leaves are Chinese chives, they are invasive if you don't cut the flower off before they become seeds. The taller type with bigger leaf is less invasive, mine hasn't spread for the past decade. Oriental stores sell the bigger and taller leaves for soup and dumplings. The short ones can be used in dumplings, and it's better-tasting than green onions.

I must say I am surprised at all of the glowing reviews for this plant. While beautiful in bloom, this invasive plant the most difficult I've ever battled! I loved it for the first few years. Now every year I dig out large amounts of this stuff. (And it weighs a ton in large amounts!)I am diligent in my deadheading. It still spreads like crazy. A few weeks ago I had enough and hit a bunch of it with round up. I don't think it's even noticed! I will try the "keep it cut low" approach. I'm my own worst enemy. I can never resist letting the darned things bloom! Too bad they are so pretty. Lovely but eeevil ! :-)

With these in the garden, I shall not want for green onions! :)

I only WISH this plant would be invasive in my balcony. My seedlings simply fail to thrive, possibly due to the high wind here.

My mom used to grow these successfully in our Louisiana garden, but no matter how big a patch she planted, we always consumed them at a faster rate than we could grow them. In Chinese cooking, these chives are used as dumpling filler (25%-75% of the total fill, remainder using shrimp, pork, chicken, or tofu). THEY ARE MORE ADDICTIVE THAN CRACK. If you are tired of bland vegetarian dumplings, these are the way to go.

I am not sure if all clones are fragrant, but mine has flower with light and pleasant fragrance, it smells almost like fabric softener. I was surprised by that. I cut them and inside the scent was more noticable. Of course, the rest of the plant will still have that garlic/onion smell.

I love these plants, it's like never ending supplies. I trim the Garlic Chives way down every 3-4 weeks eat some and give away a lot. It grow year round here, I've never seen flowers on mine due to trimming 3-4 weeks. They multiplies by the root system.

This chive is verry pretty. I do not tend to use it for cooking like my regular chive. I dont seem to get as many plant starts either. If you get a lot of plants just keep them cut low. Or else you can offer them to friends , family, freecycle maybe? I bet many people would be happy to take them. I gave chives to both my neibours last year.

Love them! So easy to grow, can't kill em! I have them in containers, I have never deadheaded, and have not seen them growing anywhere else. One of the containers I have them in does not have drainage holes, so after a lot of rain the container gets waterlogged. Even when I have forgotten to dump the excess water and they sit there for days and days in it, they survive - and look fine! I also have one container that I always forget to water for weeks and they survive it as well. Does better well-watered than when dehydrated though. Yummy.

I planted from seed in april and have many plants that are doing great in 110 degree temperatures. I was really surprised at their hardiness. I haven't gotten flowers yet and I am looking forward to them.

This plant spreads by seed aggresively. I did get rid of it by diligently cutting off all the seed heads as they bloomed. It's pretty but I can't keep up with it.

Good with baked potato and sour cream, its culinary uses are limited only by one's imagination. I bring my plant in before winter, now in it's 3rd season.

I love these little things! One day at the organic farmers market, I was discussing and wishing with another gardener to grow chives. Next thing I knew these little guys popped up in my yard. How thrilling :) I remember playing with the little onions as a kid and thinking they were the neatest things in the world. They just sort of showed up, I'm hoping they spread themselves out, If I remember right, they will.

This plant has it all--beautiful blooms, hardy green foliage and great taste. My 2-year-old granddaughter sits in the garden and eats these chives every time she visits.

These are also called Chinese Chives. Easy to grow perennials. Tasty to eat, with a subtle delicate flavour. If you want just a hint of garlic in any dish, without the overpowering odour of regular garlic, try snipping a few leaves of garlic chives into it. They are particularly good in quick, stir-fried dishes.

Very pretty plant with fresh green leaves and round white flower heads with star-shaped little flowers. It needs very little water and hardly any care. Grow this in a pot or hanging basket in your kitchen adn snip off just as many leaves as you need each time. The more you snip, the more leaves they will produce.

The also make excellent cut flowers and are also good for drying - hang a bunch of them upside down to dry and use in dry flower arranements.

I love this plant. I use the leaves stir fried with meat or seafood. I sprinkle flowers on salads. It does spread readily over time, but I find more uses over time so I so not object so far. The lacy flowers are lovely in late summer. One can cut them off before they go to seed to slow spreading. It is easy to dig out as well.

I love this herb. It grows great here in Tx. It survived the freezes and has come back very healthy this year. I prefer cooking with this herb over regular chives. I like that the leaves are broader and I prefer the stronger taste.

Very pretty in bloom, but be sure to deadhead or they'll take over! Blooms in August-September in my garden.

I agree with hemlady. If you allow Garlic Chives to seed, they'll spread like wildfire. I found out the hard way. I'll stick with plain old chives.

Unlike regular chives, which tend to flop and fall over unless regularly trimmed throughout the season, clumps of garlic chives stay green, tidy and attractive for months. This makes them more useful as a low-maintenance edging.

Definitely hardy to zone 3a. I have had it here for years with no die out. I have always deadheaded it, it has remained one polite clump for years. Great late season plant for migrating butterflies, especially Milbert tortoiseshell.

I ADORE this herb!

The leaves can be used in any of the ways one would use regular chives, & are also cooked as a vegetable in itself in Chinese cuisine.

The lovely white flowers also retain the garlic/onion taste of the leaves & can be used as tasty salad additions or food garnishes, but are quite sweet-scented & are a butterfly & honeybee magnet in the garden.

While the seed heads are attractive & provide winter garden interest, this plant is a prodigious self-sower & can become invasive if not deadheaded religiously. However, the young seedlings are easily pulled &/or transplanted.

I grow, and eat, this plant in volume. It does self seed easily, but it is easy to remove seed heads before the seeds mature. I was surprised at the comment that they were too strong to eat raw, as that is the way I always eat them. I then read that the leaf bases should be avoided raw, I tried them and tend to agree. The leaves themselves however are very pleasant. I find them prone to aphid after flowering and ususally cut it down to the ground and let it come again. The flowers are attractive and bees love them.

I use it as decoration on plates at eating time, on baked potatoes, in salads. I started growing it last year. Doing great.

This plant is very invasive. My neighbor planted them along the fence line several years ago. I now have them coming up all over the place in my yard. To prevent further spread, I cut off the seed head before it blooms to prevent the plant from seeding and further spreading.

I have grown this plant from seed for years, and love to cook with it. It is a wonderful plant to attract pollinators to the garden, and I have envelopes full of the medium sized, hard, black seeds which I have saved to make borders (like liriope) in my future perennial herb and veggie garden, which is currently under construction. They do reseed rampantly, so cut off those seed heads and save the seed for your friends. I dried the seed heads in paper bags with holes cut in the sides, hung up in a warm attic area. A very small patch of plants will produce voluminous seed!

The plants are quite hardy and stay green until really cold weather, and here in Northcentral Florida I hope my garlic chive borders will stay green all year long. These are large plants, much bigger than chives, and require quite a lot of water and fertilizer. I prefer their taste to chives in cooking--the flavor holds up better, but they are too strongly flavored to use raw, I think.

Great for culinary use, but I have had some trouble starting saved seed. I feel it is best left to fall on the ground to come up in the spring unless you are collecting to trade or sell the seed.

Terrific lacy white addition to the late summer garden here in S.Ontario. Get rid of those seeds...a rampant self seeder

Garlic chives is a clump-forming onion family member which may be grown for both culinary and ornamental purposes. Features chive-like, gray-green leaves up to 12" long which may be used in cooking in the same manner as chives (Allium schoenoprasum). Tiny, star-shaped, white flowers with brown striped tepals appear in loose clusters (umbels to 2" wide) atop leafless 9-18" stems in late summer into fall. Plants will colonize, and a small planting can expand rather quickly. All parts of the plant have an oniony smell when cut or crushed, however the flower scent is more suggestive of violets.