Do you mean the leaves are now like blades of grass rather than hollow cylinders? If that is really the case then you no longer have true chives (Allium schoenoprasum) in the pot. And if they don't smell oniony possibly you have some grass growing in there.

On the other hand if the leaves are still essentially hollow but with the sides squashed together maybe you have a watering or fungal issue which is causing the leaves to wilt.

If you can post a close-up picture of your plant, that may help us figure out what is wrong as well.

FataMorgana

Are you sure they're not garlic chives? Garlic chives are flatter, flower later (at least in zone 5) and flower white rather than purple. They also smell like garlic. When garlic chives reseed themselves in my garden, they start out looking like regular chives and then mature into the flattened garlic chive shape.

Sounds like you have garlic chives Allium tuberosum rather than onion chives A. schoenoprasum.

no they were onions chives but are now coming out flat and they look different than they're supposed to I bought mine from seed from Burpee mine are about 3 years old and they just started coming out different in the smell close to the same but they didn't just all the sudden turn into garlic or grass

I live in zone 5a (Colorado). Two years ago the same thing happened to my chives and my Mothers and my Sisters. The chives had been alright for years and in one spring they all changed into something very un-chive like.

I bought some chive plants last year and the same thing happened to me when they came up this year. No they are not garlic chives, regular chives.

Mine also did that. Was whipping up a mayo but afraid to use em, they do still smell nice.

l'll say it again, Allium scoenoprasum has tubular leaves. Its leaves cannot change from tubular to flat. This cannot vary. It's a defining botanical characteristic. The tubes may get damaged or dehydrated and squashed flat but they are still hollow. Anything with flat blades is not Allium schoenoprasum.

oorf - if your plant truly smells oniony it is edible but not necessarily palatable. Some wild onions have tough leaves.

The same thing happened to one plant of chives I have in an AeroGarden. It still tastes good and looks like healthy chives in all other respects but now has flattened triangular blades with NO tubular shape anywhere along the blade. Virus/stress/mutation related maybe? I use quite a bit of hydrogen peroxide in my reservoirs, 3ml/gal twice a week. I understand that, in theory, chives can‘t change blade shape. Only it did.....

Since no one has seen fit to post a photo illustrating what they think is their chive problem, we have no idea what may or may not be happening. IME, unless a botanist or a trained horticulturist, the average Joe has no idea how to explain plant physiology accurately enough to determine a problem from just a verbal description.

I repeat, yet again, that true chives, Allium schoenoprasum do not have flat blades. They are hollow cylinders. No exceptions. This feature is so definitive that in German cut up chives are referred to as 'little rolls'. If the blades are flat they're not A schoenoprasum.

Please post a picture and we'll do our best to work out what you have.

Well probably there are no photos since whenever I tried to upload a photo it crashes the page.

So here are links to my photos. These plants are chives. I don't know a lot about gardening, but I do know a lot about cooking. I purchased 6 plants labelled as "chives" last year. I planted them. I cut their leaves off and cooked with them. This year, in the exact same places where I had planted the chives, I have these plants. Did some chive-like grass kill all the real chives and take over their area?

https://twitter.com/2hensteeth/status/1240257584071933955/photo/1

https://twitter.com/2hensteeth/status/1240257680129875969/photo/1

The second photo won't load for me but the first photo, while it does show some sort of Allium, doesn't show A schoenoprasum, true chives. They could be Allium tuberosum, Chinese or garlic chives.

Thanks for your response. So do you think that it is possible that growers are growing the wrong thing - either on purpose or accidentally?

I've no idea what the grower is thinking. As I said they could be garlic chives. Maybe the grower just left off the word 'garlic'.

Chives and garlic chives look very different and they taste different too.

Same thing happened to me. Mine was grown from a plant I purchased and placed in a window box. The subsequent years it has emerged with flat stems. They still habe an onion taste and aroma.

This happened to me as well after a couple of years. I let it get overgrown along with grass and weeds, so think it grafted with the grass. It still tastes "oniony" but not as good

Chives cannot 'graft' with grass. It's a botanical impossibility. As is Allium schoenoprasum, true chives, acquiring flat leaves. Your picture shows a clump of true chives and a separate clump of grass. They just happen to be growing intermingled. But they have absolutely not 'grafted'. You could dig up the chives, untangle the grass and replant. Then you will not be inadvertently picking grass when you want chives.

I have seen garlic chives tagged just "chives" before....mixed up tags is pretty common, especially at big box stores. I've grown both for many years. Garlic chives are flat, chives are round.

Buyorsell, I've been saying that for ten years now on this thread! But every so often someone comes along totally convinced their chives have suddenly acquired flat leaves. I think we're fighting a losing battle.

the same thing happened to me. My chive plant turned into flat leaves. I took this plant from my backyard where it was giving beautiful chives for over 35 years. I took part of them and plant it into a container. The chives were good for one year, and thenThe following year they turned flat

I give up.

I grow chives, started from seed in a large container. 3 years later the bunch has grown and we had to cut it down leaving only 1/3, but they are still chives! They bloom chive blossoms. Their container is next to a group of society garlic, but they have not changed. There is no grass around though, so no chance of grass getting in there. We do random acts of kindness and gift chive plants to anyone who will take them walking by our home. Mine have not turned flat in 3 years.

You’re right, Susan. They can’t ‘turn flat’. It’s a botanical impossibility. I’ve been repeating this scientific fact periodically for 9 years on this thread but to no avail. Whatever people have growing with flat leaves it cannot be Allium schoenoprasum.

OK so after several months of this stuff I have to speak up. Obviously SOMETHING is happening. It's not NOTHING. Yes the idea of one species of plant turning into another is obviously silly. But something is still happening. The reason that I posted on this thread several months back was in fact NOT to be reminded that I am not trained botanist. It was to figure out what the heck was going on in my herb garden. Just like on the computer forums that I frequent, just posting RTFM (read the f*** manual) is not helpful. If you aren't on this thread to help, start another one with the title "I am super super smart".

I had the same thing happen. Last year, these were regular, tubular chives from a start that I bought and planted in a pot on a deck (along with tarragon next to it). Admittedly, I didn’t use a lot of the chives or do much of anything to prune/maintain it, but the plant appeared to never die off over the winter and seemed to come back this summer. I went to trim some for cooking today and noticed all the leaves are flat. Adding a photo of the base of the stems in case that adds any insight? No idea what could’ve happened. It doesn’t look like anything is intermingled and, like I said, the plant seemed to grow continuously in the same spot for a year.

The leaves of the pictured plant are still tubular but the tubes are flattened. If you cut one across it will be hollow. Something like a leek has a truly flat leaf ie a single blade, not a flattened cylinder.

When I first found this post after googling ”chives growing flat” I was glad to see it isn’t just mine. However, after reading the snarky comments insisting that it can’t possibly be happening (in spite of the plant being right in front of me), I’m not sure what to think.

Even though I know I’m going to get scolded for saying this, my chive plant HAS changed. I’m not saying that it has morphed into an entirely different type of plant or anything, but it has changed. What were round tubes/cylinders last year are now flat. They may still be cylinders, but they are completely flat cylinders. I havent used any for cooking yet, but they still smell like the oniony chives they were last year.

Flattened cylinders aren’t the same as flat bladed leaves, as I said in the post above yours. I'm not being snarky. And I'm not scolding. I'm just stating the botanical facts. Allium schoeonoprasum is genetically incapable of producing a flat, non-hollow leaf but its cylindrical leaves can be squashed for various reasons when they lose turgidity and strength through age, weather, crowding or physical damage. You say yourself that the leaves of your plant are still hollow cylinders. They haven't changed their basic morphology because they can’t.

Well here is a picture. Maybe it's a grass growing with it?

I bought a chive plant several years ago and grew it in a pot (UK). It was not garlic chive. It had the traditional tubular leaf. Last year and this year it has changed to a flat leaf. It is not grass.

Please explain this:

The explanation is that those are not Chives, Allium schoenoprasum. An indication of scale and a clearer, closer view of the flowers would help to id them.

Okay I will get clearer photos! I have to identify them, it's driving me crazy

I can find no other plant that flowers like this. The flower bunches are about 1inch across. Leaves are 5mm wide, about 30cm tall