Growing purple garlic flowers

Here is a blog post on growing purple garlic flowers. I love to grow edible flowers mainly because they are not only good to look at but also edible. Also known as allium sativum.

To be honest I am not sure which variety of garlic they come from. It might be from a variety of elephant garlic. I have put them about a year and a half ago during the autumn season. Come March this year a few of them have started flowering. The flowers break easily so I didn’t see a few to full bloom. Once bloomed if it breaks kept in the soil they stay fresh for a while without it wilting down.

Just like garlic bulbs, it is also high in nutritional value. Pack with anti-microbial and anti-oxidant properties.

To grow purple garlic flowers

Growing them are quite easy as all you need to do is to get hold of the bulbs to come autumn or late summer. They are available to buy online on eBay. Always go for the edible variety like allium sativum and for planting ones. Never use garlic from shops or supermarkets as they have been pretreated with chemicals to make them more appealing.

They are very easy to grow. All it needs is some well drain compost and watering during the dry season.

It is possible to grow them from seed but it takes a few years before they flower. Germinate rate also varies.

Wait for one year for it to be established then it will begin to flower. The variety that started flowering was the soft and tender leave variety rather than the hard and tough leave variety. It starts flowering in a spear-like shape as they come from the same family of leek then it blooms in the round bulb of flowers. These spear-like are also known as garlic scrapes as it is normally trimmed away before it can flower. Most gardeners or growers trim the scrapes away so that it can produce much bigger bulbs by concentrating it energy there rather than flowering.

Eating purple garlic flowers

They taste great eaten raw and are great to serve in soups and salads. It tastes like a garlicky flavor. They also can be added to stir-fries. As the flowers have got a vivid purple color they great to use to decorate a dish.

Want to read more blog posts on edible here is a link to growing borage.