O’Brien: Society garlic, a perky but pungent purple perennial

Published 5:00 am Thursday, January 11, 2024

I love it when people give me plants from their gardens. I take them home, plant them immediately, and talk ever-so sweetly to them. I really love it when I can keep them alive. And I really, really love it when they thrive, spread, and decide they like my garden as much as I do.

I’ve been gifted many plants over the years. One of the best growing plants I have ever received is Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea).

Society Garlic is a perennial that grows in clumps with grass-like leaves that reach about a foot tall. The best part is that small, lilac-colored, star-shaped flowers sprout up from the clumps on tall stalks about two feet tall. It makes a beautiful border and flowers best in a sunny location, although it will grow in partial sun too.

The whole plant is edible, including the flowers, and has a mild garlic taste. Rumor has it that it got its name due to tasting like garlic without giving you bad breath.

My cousin gave me a potful of Society Garlic bulbs when I first built my house. It has been a prolific and reliable bloomer and blooms from late spring to late fall every year. It has survived every freeze at my house in the last twenty years and continues to spread in warm weather. It is drought tolerant, has survived many summer water-rationings, and performed beautifully in the horrible heat we had this past summer.

The one caution I need to give you before planting is to choose your location wisely. When touched or handled, it does smell like garlic. If you walk on or trample it, it smells like strong garlic. When it freezes, it smells like very strong garlic.

I made the mistake of first planting it near my front door. When we had a freeze the night before Halloween one year, I heard lots of comments from trick-or-treaters with young ones saying it smelled like skunk to teenagers saying it smelled like “weed” (not the kind of weed that sprouts unwanted in your garden). I began greeting trick-or-treaters that year apologetically with, “The Society Garlic froze.”

Despite its pungent protest to freezing weather, I highly recommend planting Society Garlic in your flower garden. Wear gloves when planting, choose a sunny location away from main paths and (and your front door).