Allium tuberosum, commonly called garlic chives, is a clump-forming onion family member grown for culinary and ornamental purposes. Features chive-like, gray-green leaves up to 12" long, which may use in cooking the same way as chives (Allium schoenoprasum). Tiny, star-shaped, white flowers with brown striped tepals appear in loose clusters atop leafless 9-18" stems in late summer into fall.
Plants will colonize, and a small planting can expand rather quickly. When cut or crushed, all parts of the plant have an oniony smell; however, the flower scent is more suggestive of violets. Also commonly called Chinese chives because the plant is grown extensively in China for culinary purposes.
They are quickly grown, on average, in dry to medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Spreads somewhat aggressively by self-seeding and tuberous rootstocks—deadhead flowers before seed set to control unwanted spread.
