Sage and Chives

[HunkieDorie23]

Sage, I love it. I read several years ago that it was hard to start from seed.... because I forget. Anyway, I order some seeds because I do want to try it. How hard is it and are there any tricks to growing it? I can grow parsley, basil, oregano, thyme like I was born to do it. Chives have for some reason been a tragedy also. They are stringy and do not survivie outside. What am I doing wrong?

 

[vfem]

I failed at growing sage from seed, but my friend who never gren ANYTHING before bought sage seeds and got 3 out of 5 to sprout on a heat pad in starter pots. Anything special she did? I have NO idea!

I just went out and bought my plant and now its HUGE

 

[digitS']

'Dorie, you should find a chive plant.

Once you've got it - it spreads. Chives can even be invasive, some folks tell me.

I don't have any problem with it but it doesn't seem to be spreading from seed in my garden. Seems to be all vegetative reproduction here . . .

Steve

 

[hoodat]

In my experience chives are what old time gardeners called "contrary plants" They die if cared for but thrive as a weed. When I was mowing lawns there were several neglected ones that were more chives than grass. You could really smell the chives after they were mowed. The flat leaf garlic chives do better for me under garden conditions and the flower scapes are delicious in Chinese cooking.
Sage seeds are unpredictable in germination Some will come up in a week or two and others may stay in the ground for a year before they surprise you. The longer they were stored the longer they take to come up as a rule. They develop a hard shell if stored for long and the shell has to decay away before they can sprout.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Well that helps a lot. I was looking and IGA has both garlic chives and sage plants in the produce section. Both are in very small 3" pots but I have a couple of nice 5" very deep pots that Lowes were running on clearance.