joene's garden » chives

Keep gardens neat looking with deadheading

joenesgarden — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:55:47 +0000

As a garden coach and personal gardener most of my springtime gardening work is done in clients' gardens. Gardening at home happens in tidbits of time. Fortunately, I only need tidbits of time to keep up with deadheading. Many clients and gardening friends have questions about deadheading – gardeners' term for removing of spent flowers. But careful attention to how a perennial flowers offers clues to how to deadhead. You don't want to cut down all green growth since perennials use the greenery to produce energy to survive. But unless you plan to harvest seeds from a specific perennial, allowing it to go to seed is simply taxing the plant's energy for no good gardening reason. So I expend a fair portion of my home gardening time removing spent blossoms. Beside ensuring perennials don't waste good energy on seed production, deadheading keeps the gardens looking fresh and allows currently blooming flowers to take center stage.

When spent flowers and stalks are removed, the spikey foliage of iris continues to add interest to gardens.

The Siberian iris flower on the lower right can stay for a day but cut spent flower stalks just above a leaf.

Bearded iris stay looking much neater when spent blossoms are carefully snapped or sliced off.

The blossom on the right will attract all the attention once the spent blossoms are removed. After all blooms have passed, cut the flower stalk off just above a leaf.

Chive blossoms have mostly faded. Pull or snap spent flowers from their stalk. I remove flower stalks later in the season once they turn brown when hey are much easier to pull free.

With no seeds to form, tired looking chive clumps will rejuvenate with new green growth and maybe a few new blossoms later in the season.

Scabiosa will keep flowering until the high heat of mid-summer as long as spent flowers, like those at left center and upper right, are removed.

After a brief period of no blooms, scabiosa will rebloom as cooler late-summer weather prevails.

Peony foliage provides a nice touch of backdrop greenery when spent flowers have been cut just above a leaf node.

Browned flower petals are depressing. The lower right flower can stay for a day or so. The rest must go.

I love the fact that my Oriental poppy gave me three blooms this year – I started the plant from seed a few years back.

I also love the look of the poppy seed pod.

But I'll soon chop it off to allow the plants to put more energy into spreading and hopefully setting even more blossoms next year.

With so little time to tinker in my own gardens, I've taken to leaving a pail at the ready in an inconspicuous spot near a back door. Seeing the pail reminds me to grab a knife, scissors, or pruning shears … and a few minutes each day … to deadhead spent flowers. Do I mind this task? Not at all. It's a great excuse to wander from plant to plant, to listen to birds sing and feel the breezes blow. I walk away with a feeling of accomplishment, even if I've only tended a few plants, and the gardens look better for the attention.

Categories: Gardening, Techniques.
Tags: chives, deadheading, gardening in Connecticut, iris, oriental poppy, peony, scabiosa.

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Chives in Bloom

joenesgarden — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:04:47 +0000

One of the most rewarding aspects of growing herbs is the ability to use their fresh flavor to spark up home-cooked meals. It's even better to find a way to capture the fresh flavor of herbs for use during months when plants are dormant.

Common chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are blooming now in my Connecticut, zone 6a, garden. The narrow shoots of chives peeking out of newly thawing ground are often one of the first signs that spring is on its way, and chives' globe-shaped blossoms are the earliest herb to bloom in my garden each spring.

I love the mild oniony flavor diced chive shoots add to scrambled eggs, omelets, and salads (potato, chicken, egg, tuna and green) as well as dips and fresh soups, so I use freshly cut and diced chives often through the growing season. I also love the color of chive blossoms and annually use these freshly picked flowers to flavor and color vinegar. I'll refrain from any lengthy description of this process so as not to bore regular readers. Those unfamiliar or wanting a refresher can read the How do you use chives? post from last May.

Generally I have enough chive blossoms to make plenty of chive vinegar to fulfill my annual culinary needs and those of my adult children. I'm a little concerned about this year's crop though. Rain has been nearly constant all this week, just as the first round of chive flowers opened. Many of the blossoms have quickly degraded to an unsightly mushy mass.

Fortunately the second round – the pink chive blossoms – are just opening. You can bet I'll be outside this weekend snapping off enough chive blossoms to start my vinegar-making regimen.

Last fall, wanting to find more ways to capture that fresh chive flavor for winter use … and inspired by the many recipe ideas in The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard … I whipped up some chive butter. This involved dicing chive leaves, blending them into softened butter, rolling the butter into a tube covered by wax paper, and freezing. Throughout the cold-weather months I've used slices or chunks of this chive butter to flavor soups and sauces, baked fish, and homemade macaroni and cheese. The process really captures the fresh flavor of chives – a welcome treat during the dead of winter.

Chives are such an easy plant to grow. Give them well-drained soil, full to partial sun, and an easy-to-reach location to facilitate grabbing fresh snips for cooking. Small clumps grow two to three times larger in just a few years. When clumps become too large, a digging fork easily dislodges their root mass and divides the clump. Replant the divisions to increase your collection or share divisions with gardening friends.

I'm always on the lookout for new chive varieties – I currently have three flower shades of common chives (Allium schoenoprasum), garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), and ornamental curly chives (Allium spriale). I'd also love to hear of new ways to use and preserve chives. Do share if you have any suggestions or ideas.

Categories: Edibles, Gardening, Herb Highlights.
Tags: chives, gardening in Connecticut.

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Shades of yellow, blue, violet and green and the best blossoms of all

joenesgarden — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Spring is off to a slow but welcome start in Connecticut. All the blooms in my gardens are still pretty much at ground level, but if you look closely … beyond the cheerful daffodil and narcissi … you'll see some colorful treasures. My trusty camera caught a few blooms to share on this April 2011 Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I snuck in some buds and greenery, too.

My little clump of Tete-a-Tetes survived early deer browsing and sent up a mass of happy flowers, though a keen eye can still see the evidence of deer nibbles.

Close inspection reveals one or two common periwinkle blossoms peeking from behind leaves.

The still tight bud of grape hyacinth.

Naturalized scillia demurely hiding by a back corner of the house. Looks like these scillia leaves also had an early visit from deer.

White lilac buds are making promises. They've come a long way since last month.

Low-bush blueberry buds are just starting to swell.

Raspberry leaves are a shade farther along.

Chives add bright touches of green.

But the best blooms of all did not originate from my gardens. They came from a friend's kindness … one of the most precious gifts of all.

Yep, that's a strawberry leaf and blossoms in the center of a bunch of happy-faced violas. Thank you, Amanda. Just like your friendship, this truly is a gift that keeps giving.

Now head over to May Dreams Gardens, where Carol hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Check out the flowering gifts from all over the planet.

Categories: Bloom Day, Bulbs, Gardening.
Tags: a basket of friendship, blueberry buds, chives, daffodils, grape hyacinth, lilac buds, narcissi, raspberry leaves, scillia, vinca.

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How do you use chives?

joenesgarden — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:28:43 +0000

May is chive season in Connecticut gardens. The multi-purpose herb blooms in showy globe-shaped flower heads in shades of lavender that gently stand atop long slender leaf shoots. I have chives planted in multiple locations, some in perennial beds and others along a garden fence line. In other gardens I've observed chives planted in herb beds, living year after year in a basic wooden planter, and as a border along a perennial bed. All striking ways to show off the herb's form and keep it close at hand for kitchen use. In a former … and formal … circle herb-style garden I created long ago, chives bordered the outermost edge of one of four equally-sized quadrants. Classic orange poppies grew in the middle of the quadrant. One year the two bloomed simultaneously and the effect was stunning (Sorry, no photos … before the digital age).

In my current gardens, chives bloom in three shades – a pale lavender, a darker lavender that photos don't due justice to but trust me the flowers are definitely a darker color, and a pinkish lavender shown in the upper right photo. I cannot explain the slight color varieties in the pale and darker lavenders – they all originated from the same parent plant and reside in similar soils. The pinkish lavender clumps came from a different parent and may be a different variety.

My curly chives - picked up at last year's neighborhood plant swap - are still small and have yet to show their flowers. But I love the sweeping curl of the leaves.

Making chive vinegar is an annual ritual in my kitchen. My family saves various attractive glass jars to insure I have ample vessels to use for chive vinegar … and they get to share in this bounty. In early morning as the dew begins to dry, I take a bowl to the garden and snap off chive blossoms just before they fully open. I drop the flowers into a clean glass jar, cover them with white vinegar, and set them on the kitchen counter out of direct sun. I've tried red wine vinegar it absorb the clear lavender hue that seeps from the chive flowers into the vinegar, so I stick with plain old 'white' vinegar. We all enjoy the colorful jars for a few weeks as the flowers infuse the vinegar with chive flavor . Once needed, I strain out the blossoms when I transfer the vinegar into other jars. Chive vinegar is tasty in home made salad dressings, German potato salad, and in any other recipe that calls for vinegar. Try pouring chive vinegar over chicken before baking – it keeps the meat amazingly moist.

Chive flowers have other uses. Break off the tiny florets to add to green salads or tuna and chicken salads – the color gives salads a fresh look and a great, mild, onion-like flavor. Try chive flowers in scrambled eggs to impart a light, garden-fresh flavor to breakfast. Scrambled eggs with freshly diced thyme and chive flowers was a huge hit at my house.

Chives leaves can be used traditionally – on baked potatoes – but also in just about any type of salad that cries out for a subtle oniony boost. I also add freshly sliced chives to cooked dishes begging for a subtle oniony flavor – but do so just before serving since chives quickly go limp when cooked. An easy way to slice chive leaves is to hold a bunch of the slender leaves in one hand and cut the tender shoots into useable lengths with scissors.

Garlic chives also thrive in my gardens – in fact they have become a real pest after I missed just one year of deadheading their flower stalks before they went to seed. Garlic chives have long flat leaves in contrast to the rounded leaf spikes on standard chives. In August, when other perennials look tired, garlic chives throw up beautiful white blossoms This, and their garlicky flavor are two good reasons to grow garlic chives – use them similarly to standard chives, just don't expect garlic chive vinegar to turn any color but clear. Still … and this is very important … be extremely vigilant in not letting garlic chives go to seed. Once ripe, the tiny black seeds spread with the slightest breeze. If you let the seed head ripen , next season you will definitely find multiple volunteer garlic chives shooting up in unexpected places When established garlic chives can be thinned but they must be dug out by the small, easily missed, bulb. I have a ton of volunteer garlic chives slated for destruction. At the same time, I cannot imagine having any garden without them.

Even with all these uses, I must be missing some other ways to use chives, and there must be other chive varieties. Do you have any other uses?

Is anyone growing white chives? How do they compare flavor-, blooming-, and growth-wise with their lavender cousins?

Categories: Edibles, Gardening, Herb Highlights, Perennials & Annuals.
Tags: chives, gardening in Connecticut, vinegar.

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