Is Chives deer resistant?

Chives are the smallest onion in the garden and carry the whole family's defense. Rutgers rates ornamental onions, Allium sp., Rarely Damaged, and NC State's entry for Allium schoenoprasum says it in five words: "Chives are deer and drought resistant." Iowa State lists onion and garlic in its top tier of vegetables. The sulfur compounds that make the leaf taste of onion are what a deer smells first, and the plant is rarely tested.

Do deer eat chives?

Rarely. Nothing consulted here rates chives separately from the genus, which Rutgers puts in the top tier, and NC State's sentence covers the species. The flowers are the part occasionally nipped in June, and the clump is not harmed.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 4a to 8b, 1 to 1 1/2 feet, full sun or partial shade, mauve flowers spring into summer, resisting drought, humidity, wet soil, black walnut and disease. Cut to the ground after flowering it regrows fresh inside a fortnight, which is the standard care anyway.

Protecting chives

Nothing from deer. The ASPCA lists chives as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, the same N-propyl disulfide as the rest of the onion family, with "vomiting, breakdown of red blood cells" among the signs; the callout below carries it. A pot by the kitchen door is where most chives live, and it is where a dog reaches them.

If it is browsed

A browsed clump is a cut clump; it regrows from the base in two weeks in spring and does not notice. Divide it every few years when the center thins.