Friday, August 20, 2010

Photo Fridays: Garlic Chives

This year we finally have blooms on our garlic chives.

Garlic chive plants

A busy honeybee visiting a flowerstalk

I had hoped we would have blooms someday because they are pretty and provide food for bees, but I also wanted to be sure that the plants were actually garlic chives rather than onion chives.  My favorite herb book, Southern Herb Growing by Texas herb expert Madalene Hill and her daughter Gwen Barclay, notes several differences between the two chive types, the most obvious of which is the flowers.  Onion chive flowers are lavender-pink and globe-shaped; garlic chive flowers are white.

The pollinators are happy because they have another food source. The farmer/scientist who likes to identify and categorize things is happy because she now has a positive I.D.  :-)

p.s. There is a lovely post about Madalene Hill, Madalene Hill on a Sunny Day, on the blog Jim Long's Garden.

2 comments:

  1. And I am happy because you are promoting pollinators!

    My mouth started watering just reading the title of this post.

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  2. Polli, I always appreciate and enjoy your comments. Plus, I think it is so cool that someone called The Pollinatrix follows this blog!

    Not long after I published the post, I saw a beautiful orange butterfly visiting the chives. I love it!

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