The association between Mary and chives or garlic is illusive. Both plants are in the same genus, Allium, along with onions, shallots and leeks. The Bible does not mention chives at all but does mention garlic in Numbers 11.5 (NIV). As the Israelites wandered in the desert they complained about the lack of foods that they had eaten when living in Egypt.
” We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.”
Botanical nomenclature in biblical days was not precise and scholars think that chives could well have been known then and perhaps viewed as a mild form of one of the other Alliums. We know that garlic was cultivated in Mesopotamia 4,000 years ago and was used in ancient times as both a culinary and medicinal herb. The ancient Greeks and Roman, in particular, mention garlic as a cure for many health issues ranging from a toothache to asthma and epilepsy. In 17th century England, garlic was valued as an application in confluent smallpox and even today garlic is believed to have healing properties. The name of “Our Lady’s Garlic” for chives probably arose from the association of the healing properties of garlic and the mild garlic flavor of chives with the delicate, gentle, nurturing nature of the Virgin Mary.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia; Harvesting garlic, from Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Chives, is a bulb-forming herbaceous perennial in the Amaryllis family and native to temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The dark gray-green, grass-like leaves are hollow and grow 12-20″ long. The pale-purple, 6 petaled flowers are star-shaped, 1/2-3/4″ wide, and appear in dense terminal globose umbels of 10-30 on scapes well above the foliage from spring to early summer.
The genus name, Allium, is the classical Latin name for garlic. The specific epithet, schoenoprasum, comes from the Greek words schoinos meaning rush, and prason meaning leek referring to the appearance of the leaves.
Chives like full sun and organically rich, moist, well drained soil in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8. Plants have no significant pests or diseases and may act as an insect repellent in some cases. Propagation is by division or seed. Clumps should be divided every 3 years to ensure flowering. Plants brought indoors for the winter need a cold period of a couple of months to produce new leaves in spring so some plants should be left outdoors in the winter.
Karen