Tarragon and Chives

[Jessiebean]

I know chives are easy once they are established but would I be wasting my time planting them now (late autumn starting to get fridgy-ish)? I am also intrigued by Tarragon and wonder if the Russian stuff is any good. I am happy to grow the Russian if it has super powers like pest repelling or making my veg taste good, also I am looking for more plants to add dimension to the garden. I thought the Russian Tarragon might be a better pick than the French as I understand the French is better tasting but more pernickety

[Millymollymandy]

I don't think it will harm planting the chives now if they are from a container - they just go dormant in very cold weather so they're going to do this whether in a pot or in the ground anyway - and will be better protected in the ground.

Tarragon - I've heard the Russian tarragon doesn't taste of anything. But that's only hearsay! I have French and it's a tasty herb but disappointing in that it is a really boring looking plant that doesn't DO anything! i.e. it doesn't have pretty flowers like most other herbs and just tends to look good in spring then get all leggy and brown in summer. I never even use it (I forget!) so I don't know why I bother really.

[pelmetman]

Our chives have survived the bad winter. They are looking really lovely though I have put in more seeds as we use a lot of chives, lovely in homemade potato salad - yum.
Sue

[Green Aura]

MMM - can you take cuttings from your Tarragon, or root division (if you have a bit of your boring plant going begging I'd be soooooo grateful)?

You can't get French Tarragon here for love nor money - even when you find a plant at all it's never labelled "French" and it is always the Russian variety - tasteless and useless.

So in answer to your question about Russian Tarragon - my answer would be leave it alone. It's a complete waste of garden space and money.

[Millymollymandy]

Maggie I'll try - all you do is chop a bit of the plant + root off and repot. But I'd have to send it to you bare rooted and it's already about a foot tall so will probably have to trim it back. I've moved mine many times and they never seem to mind! I really really ought to use it, it's just that by the time I have veg from the garden it's usually past its best and I don't know what it goes with really, apart from chicken. And mostly we eat that as a roast.

Also I've never bothered trying to chop back the tarragon to see if it has a new flush of leaves. It's just so ugly it got moved from my pretty front bed (in the recent photo with all the dill flowers in it) to a corner of the veg patch behind the currants!

[Green Aura]

Fantastic with eggs, chicken, fish - all sorts. I love it. If you manage to get a viable piece pm me and I'll send you some postage.

[Millymollymandy]

I'll chop a bit off just before we are going out somewhere near a postbox, umm probably Monday, so in the meantime pm me your address and I'll post it and consider it an early (or late) birthday present.

How exactly do you use it with eggs though? Omelette? I think probably moving it to the veg patch has made me forget it as it's not near enough to the house to pop out to pick, unlike things like chives and parsley which are always handy nearby.

[MKG]

Agreed, agreed, agreed - Russian Tarragon doesn't even deserve the name. I've bought French Tarragon plants for the past four years (once locally, and three times by lucky coincidence) and it's been encouraged, spoken to nicely, mollycoddled, egostroked and everything else I could think of. I managed to keep one plant alive for the second year. But in the end, zilch. It never grows vigorously enough that I'd dare take even a single leaf, and then it dies. I've given up. It's less effort (and actually less costly on the environment) to admit defeat and buy the dried stuff from the supermarket.

Hanging my head in shame

Mike

[Jessiebean]

MKG-I think that I migt have to give French Tarragon a miss- I fear that I would have an extremely similar experience to yours.
in the self sufficientish bible Tarragon is mentioned for growing in the veg patch- this would be the French stuff?
I had forgotten chives were dormant in winter- I was planning on growing from seed so I guess that would end one of two ways- no success at all or a very confused chive plant.
*sigh* I shall have to learn some patience I think!

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmm maybe this is one plant that really does like my free draining dry soil then - it gets several feet tall in the summer when it is 'flowering' (they're green and small so you don't notice) and rather brown round the edges but keeps coming back year after year. I give it no TLC whatsoever and believe me that's hard for me because I'm a real mollycoddler of plants.