Three cheers for this garden champ! Chives grow easily in my garden, and winter surprisingly well.
Last year, this container of chives was only six months old when it was covered with it's first snow. It survived temperatures in the low teens, and complete neglect from me. Early March, I was counting, organizing and cleaning containers for spring planting when I pulled back the brown and yellow chives to find green shoots looking for some sun. This was a moment of pure joy. The trees were bare, my yard was still cold and grey, but I had green chives!
As I inspected the soil and bald patches of the chives, I realized I could carefully lift and separate the chives from the dried soil, as if I was going to roll up sod. So I tossed the sad wintered soil into the compost and filled the container with rich organic soil. I carefully laid the chives (and the remaining soil they clung to) onto the new soil, and filled in the "bald" spaces with new chive seeds. This growing season, I've been dazzled by chive blossoms twice and hope they continue to thrive.
