Hi everyone,

Has anybody had success growing nira (I think they might be more commonly known as Chinese or Garlic Chives) in Southern California or a similar climate?

I'll fast forward through my newbie blunderings and failures with this veggie my Japanese husband and I love very much and get to the current status:

I finally had sucess with getting some nira seeds to sprout sometime last March, and now after almost seven months, a reasonable amount of them are finally starting to look like young nira plants that might actually get big enough to harvest someday. I realize that I put them in a spot that was not ideal (too much shade, stays too wet, to many invasive former resident plants keep popping up amonst them, etc.).

That said, when I ordered more seeds last week (I finally learned that the ones I brought when I moved back from Tokyo five years ago had long since expired and that was why they never came up!), I understood from the Evergreen website that nira takes awhile to mature, and that you shave it off to harvest and new leaves come up; and that it should be divided every couple years. Does that mean that an established "colony" could be succssfully relocated elsewhere in the garden or to a container?

Could somebody please help clarify this, and if anyone has a tried-and-true "nira management program" in place, I would be most grateful if you would share it with me.

I have thought about relocating my alliums to the opposite side of my little postage stamp garden in front where there is more light, but the flip side is that area gets blasted by the ruthless southern california sun most of the day, and I'm concerned that the shallow-rooted alliums might not care for that arrangement either. That said, there were some big, robust-looking onions growing out of the hard-baked solid clay soil in full sun in our next door neighbors' yard (We had the same type of soil except that I spent a lot of time and $$$$ digging it up and amending the h#]] out of it)

Another proposal is to place a large-ish trough shaped planter in the back parking lot where my other containers are, and put the other alliums I am trying to grow in it since an environment like that might be somewhat easier to manage. My shallots and globe onions also didn't care for the spot they shared next to the nira plants.

Thoughts?? I would really appreciate any pearls of wisdom so I might get a decent crop of alliums in the coming season(s)!

Thanks very much,

Brenda K