Our chives are definitely champions this year. As you already know from our previous posts, they provided us with a magnificent display of purple flowers from early spring all the way up to the end days of May.
When the flowers started to go over, we made the radical decision of cutting them back. Severely. We had heard that this can sometimes spur the plants into flowering again, and we wanted to test the theory ourselves. So we grabbed the garden scissors and gave the plants a good trim, until they were only a couple of inches above the ground. They did look a bit sad, so we figured the theory was wrong. We thought we’d be lucky to see any more leaves growing, not to mention any flowers.
Of course, it was us who were wrong. The chives did grow again and have now started to put on a second display of lovely flowers. Admittedly, it’s a more discreet, less abundant affair this time. The plants must be a bit tired, but they’re beautiful nonetheless. Not only are we enjoying them very much, but we’ve also learnt a valuable lesson: never underestimate the power of the sun, good rain water and a plant’s will to live.
