When my chives started flowering, I didn’t want the purple blossoms to go to waste. Instead, I found a few different ways to use them around the home and garden.
Here are four things I did with my chive blossoms this year.
1. Add them to your food
Chive blossoms are edible and have a lovely, mild onion flavour.
I like to save the individual little flowers and sprinkle them over pasta, salads, omelettes or rice dishes. They add a subtle flavour as well as a beautiful splash of colour. The taste is quite sweet , so its lovely on food.
2. Use them in flower arrangements
Chive blossoms are beautiful little flowers in their own right. I used them in simple flower arrangements to bring a little colour from the garden to the table.
You don’t need a large arrangement a few stems mixed with other garden flowers can look lovely and natural.
3. Save the seeds
Once the flowers have finished, you can leave some of them to mature and collect the seeds.
I like saving seeds from the garden whenever I can. It’s an easy way to grow more plants next year and keep your own little cycle of growing going.
How to Save Chive Seeds
If you want to grow chives again next year, saving the seeds is very easy.
After the chive flowers have finished blooming, leave some of the flower heads on the plant rather than cutting them off. Over time, the flowers will dry and you’ll start to see small black seeds developing inside.
Wait until the flower heads are completely dry. I usually cut the dried heads from the plant and place them in a paper bag or container. Gently rub over a tray and shake the flower heads to release the seeds.
Remove any remaining pieces of dried flower and keep the seeds in a labelled paper envelope. Store them somewhere cool and dry until you’re ready to sow them.
It’s such a simple way to save a little bit of this year’s garden for next year.
4. Decorate handmade soap
Of course, I couldn’t resist using some of the blossoms in my soapmaking too!
Chive blossoms can make a lovely natural decoration on the surface of handmade soap, adding a little piece of the garden to the finished bar.
For me, this is one of the nicest things about growing flowers and herbs they can have so many different uses, from the kitchen to the table and even in handmade products.
So next time your chives are covered in flowers, don’t be too quick to cut them back.
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