How to Prune Chives – Removing the Blossoms

Is it necessary to prune chives? Yes, I highly recommend dead-heading your chive blossoms once they’ve finished blooming and are starting to dry out. That is, after you used as many of them as possible in various recipes like chive blossom vinegar, chive blossom biscuits, chive finishing salt, or just sprinkling a few blossoms on salad.

chive blossoms

Also Read: Chive Blossom Vinegar, Chive Blossom Biscuits, Chive Finishing Salt, Growing Chives, Freezing or Drying Chives

Can You Eat Chive Blossoms?

YES! I love these purple blossoms and you can eat them fresh or dried. My all time favourite are the chive blossom biscuits shown below, but try all the recipes listed above.

Those purple blossoms are such a welcome sight first thing in spring. These lovely, edible blossoms are a pleasure to have in the garden as one of the first blossoms for pollinators and for us to enjoy in various recipes.

Why Prune Chives

Chives reseed VERY easily! Since you likely won’t be able to eat all of your chive blossoms, you want to prune the blossoms to prevent them from scattering seeds EVERYWHERE.

Here’s a quick  video showing how to do this and why. Hint – it’s as simple as plucking the faded blossoms from the plant.

YouTube player
chive blossoms fading - prune chives

Chive Seeds & Blossoms

In the video I briefly touch on just how many seeds these lovely blossoms produce. Here’s a closer look.

chive blossom with seeds

Each blossom head has about 20 to 40 individual flowers. Each of those flowers has a seed pod with at least 3 tiny black seeds. That’s 60 to 120 seeds per blossom. Each chive bunch has about 30 to 40 heads. Here’s the math:

40 tiny flowers per head x 3 seeds each x 40 heads = 4,800 seeds per bunch. Can you imagine 5,000 chive seeds scattered in your yard?!

And if you love chives as much as we do, for their early colors and their flavor, you probably have a few bunches. We have 8 bunches under one apple tree and a couple other bunches tucked here and there. So in our yard, we have the potential for around 50,000 chive seeds scattered around. Now, that’s a lot of chives!

chives around the apple tree - prune chives
Our apple tree has at least 8 bunches of chives.

Plucking those faded blossoms is MUCH easier than weeding out 5000 new seedlings you don’t want!

chive blossom
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How to Remove Chive Blossoms

When and how to remove chive blossoms from your plant – to reduce unwanted plants in your yard & to make sure you can enjoy the fresh unique flavour of blossoms in your cooking.
Total Time: 5 minutes
Author: Getty Stewart

Ingredients

  • 1 plant Chives when plant is in bloom and blossoms are fluffy.

Instructions

  • Once chive plant has finished flowering and JUST begun to dry, pluck blossom heads.
  • To pluck: place blossom head in between 2 fingers and gently pinch and tug to remove.
  • Save these fresh blossoms for use in baking or salads – for a fresh green onion-y flavour.
  • To dry chive blossoms that you've picked, lay them on a mesh screen in a single layer. Place them in a dark, dry space for 1 to 2 weeks until completely dry. Use them as a flavorful garnish. Or grind them to make an onion powder – great for any savoury dish where you might use garlic powder.

Video

Notes

Note: if you wait too long and all the flowers have dried to a ‘seed’ stage – they are little chive bombs waiting to be planted for next year. Be careful not to add them to your garden where you DON’T want future chives 😉
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Course: gardening
Keyword: chive blossoms, chives

When to Prune Chives

You can prune chives or remove the blossoms as soon as they begin to fade. Once the seed heads are dry, the seeds become viable – that means they can start to grow, so get them before that happens.

Can You Dry and Use Chive Blossoms?

Yes, you can! As I mentioned above, you can use the fresh chive blossoms in many recipes, but you can also use dried chive blossoms. Chive blossoms are edible, whether fresh or dried. They have a slightly stronger flavor than the chive greens.

To dry chive blossoms that you’ve picked, lay them on a mesh screen in a single layer. Place them in a dark, dry space for 1 to 2 weeks until completely dry. Use them as a flavorful garnish. Or grind them to make an onion powder – great for any savoury dish where you might use garlic powder.

drying chives flowers

Can I Compost Chive Blossoms?

Yes, composting is the ideal way to get rid of chive blossoms that you aren’t going to eat. BUT only if your compost gets hot enough to destroy seeds. If it doesn’t your chive seeds may survive in your compost and be spread to wherever you use your compost. Which totally defeats the purpose.

chive blossom heads, prune chives

My husband manages all our compost and he does a remarkable job. The final product always amazes me. But, I don’t think our home compost gets hot enough to destroy seeds. Therefore, whenever I’m weeding plants with seeds or dead head my chives, I put them in the garbage instead of the compost.

Can I Harvest Chives After Removing Blossoms?

Yes! The good news is that even after you prune chives you can continue to use them all season long. We put chives on just about everything! Eggs, potatoes, salads, casseroles, anything that requires a touch of green and a very mild onion flavor. This chive and lemon vinaigrette is perfect for the first greens out of the garden or for a salad featuring asparagus, spinach or beet tops. If you’re feeling especially fancy, use the blossoms in salads, omelettes, vinegar infusions, dressings or simply as garnish.

You may notice that chive growth slows a little during the hottest part of the summer, that’s because chives don’t like the heat. If they’re not as lush as you’d like, let them be and wait until things cool in the fall – you’ll get another chance to harvest more chives.

Do you grow chives? Do you prune chives? Do you need some chives – because I have a few to share!

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Select, store and serve seasonal food for everyday cooking with Getty. Getty is a food educator and Professional Home Economist, who loves sharing tips and recipes following the seasons from her Canadian kitchen. Sign up to get seasonal tips and recipes delivered to your inbox. Learn more about Getty or check out her books and pdf guides.

2 Comments

  1. Hello Getty my name is Yolanda from Phoenix, AZ. As you probably know it is very hot here in Phoenix and as such there are a lot of things that I can’t grow but we have a mild winter (not really a winter). I would love to have some of your chives. I’m sure there must be some here but I don’t know where so that being said can you please send me some of your chive seeds or whatever you think might grow here during our growing season. I can start them indoors and later transfer them outside if that is something that I should do. I’m also looking to start cilantro.
    p.s.: I would love to learn how to grow sweet potatoes inside my home. My grandmother had many of them growing inside and I think of her whenever I see vines.

    Thank you so much for whatever you can help me with. Gracias from the Southwestern state of Arizona

    1. Hi Yolanda,
      Thanks for writing from beautiful Phoenix AZ. I had a chance to visit several years ago, lovely!

      I wish I could share some of my chives for you. I have so much growing in my yard, alas it is under 5 inches of snow now. Since I have so much, I don’t keep any seed for it at all. If a local greenhouse doesn’t have it, you might want to try an online source for seeds.

      As for cilantro, I find it’s one of the trickiest herbs, it always bolts so quickly. Truth is I’ve given up growing it! But try them nonetheless.

      I bet you could grow some lovely rosemary and oregano. They might even go year round for you.

      Sweet potatoes is another plant I don’t know much about. I’ve tried growing a slip outside one summer, but didn’t feel the results were worth doing again.

      I recommend you spend a day at a local greenhouse and ask them for their advice.

      Good luck,

      Getty

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