BY Dee Bishop, In our garden 

Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) grow in the herb garden within the IDEA Garden.

A demure little plant most of the year, garlic chives burst into bloom in early September. Eighteen-inch-tall stalks topped by clusters of little white flowers decorate the herb garden for several weeks. The flowers are pretty, but all the activity by insect pollinators give them so much movement. It is fun to watch all the little bees and other pollinating insects at work on these fun little alliums.

I have grown garlic chives for years in my own yard, either in the ground or in pots. I enjoy using the leaves in salads. If you enjoy using garlic, but not really strong garlic in salads, try garlic chives.

Chives — both onion and garlic — are wonderful in all sorts of recipes, but I really love garlic chives in salads because of the delicate garlic taste. They don’t seem to make your breath smell either, which is great when you serve salads to guests.

Garlic chives grow in clumps and will seed out prodigiously if you don’t deadhead the blooms before they make seeds. You can enjoy the flowers and clip off the heads once the flowers fade.

If you let them go to seed, you will have garlic chives everywhere and you have to dig them out. So be diligent to do away with the seed heads before they drop the little black seeds everywhere.