Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) - Nectar-Rich Flowering Allium for Bees & Pollinators

Allium schoenoprasum, commonly known as Chives, is a wonderfully useful perennial Allium producing neat clumps of slender green foliage topped with rounded heads of pink-purple flowers in late spring and summer.

Better known as a culinary herb, Chives also deserve far more attention as a pollinator plant. Their flower heads are formed from numerous small, accessible blooms, creating convenient feeding stations for bees and other visiting insects.

Compact, hardy and easy to incorporate into a wide range of gardens, Chives work beautifully in sunny borders, herb gardens, gravel planting, wildlife-friendly beds and along productive garden edges.

Unlike many large ornamental Alliums, their smaller scale and softer habit make them easy to weave amongst other flowering plants rather than dominating a planting scheme.

Wildlife value

Chive flowers are highly attractive to bees and other pollinating insects.

Each rounded flower head contains many individual nectar-bearing flowers, allowing visiting insects to move efficiently from bloom to bloom.

Their late-spring and summer flowering period also helps extend the succession of forage beyond the earliest spring bulbs.

For a wildlife-friendly garden, Chives are a particularly useful example of a plant that can serve more than one purpose - providing attractive flowers for pollinators while also fitting naturally into herb, vegetable and ornamental planting.

They can be combined with native wildflowers and other carefully selected nectar-rich plants to maintain a varied supply of flowers through the season.

Our approach remains: native where ecological relationships matter most; carefully chosen ornamentals where they genuinely provide useful additional forage.

Planting & care

Position: Full sun is ideal, although Chives will tolerate some light partial shade.

Soil: Fertile, reasonably well-drained soil. Avoid permanently waterlogged conditions.

Planting depth: Plant approximately 5-8cm deep, with the growing point positioned upwards.

Spacing: Approximately 15-20cm apart, depending on whether you want individual clumps or a more continuous drift.

Height: Usually around 20-40cm when flowering.

Flowering period: Generally May to July, depending on conditions.

Aftercare: Allow some flower heads to remain for pollinators rather than removing them all immediately. Established clumps can be divided periodically if they become congested.

Perfect for productive wildlife gardens

Chives are especially valuable where wildlife gardening and food growing overlap.

Their compact habit allows them to be tucked along the edges of vegetable beds, herb gardens, paths and sunny borders without taking up large amounts of space.

The flowers can also be allowed to remain rather than routinely removed, turning what is often grown purely as a culinary herb into a useful seasonal nectar source.

For a naturalistic effect, repeat small clumps amongst other low-growing flowering plants rather than confining all the Chives to one herb bed.

A NOTE ABOUT EDIBILITY

Allium schoenoprasum is the familiar culinary Chive species, and established plants are traditionally grown for their edible leaves and flowers.

However, the bulbs supplied here are sold as ornamental planting stock rather than as food, so bulbs should not be eaten on arrival.

SAFETY NOTE

As with other members of the Allium family, plant material can be harmful to dogs, cats and some other animals if eaten in quantity. Plant thoughtfully where pets are likely to chew garden plants.

Why Wild Your Garden?

We carefully select bulbs that earn their place in a wildlife-friendly garden - prioritising native and naturalised species where ecological relationships matter most, alongside carefully chosen ornamentals that provide useful additional forage.

Orders are hand-picked for quality and packed in paper wherever suitable, with breathable net packaging used where necessary to keep bulbs in the best possible condition.

We work with specialist bulb growers and suppliers, including long-established local growers.