How to Grow Wild Garlic in Australia

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum), also called ramsons or bear garlic, is a bulbous woodland perennial of the onion genus, family Amaryllidaceae. It is grown for its broad, garlic-scented spring leaves and starry white flowers, both eaten raw or cooked. It is not three-cornered garlic (Allium triquetrum) or crow garlic (Allium vineale), the weeds called "wild garlic" in Australia, nor onion weed (Nothoscordum borbonicum). The usual mistake is expecting quick seedlings, when the seed needs a warm spell, then winter cold, and can take a year.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Sowing without a winter. Seed sown in spring, or kept warm all year, usually sits dormant, because it needs a warm spell followed by a cold one. Sow before winter, or give the sown pot a spell in the fridge, as Sowing Seeds describes.
2. Planting it in hot sun and dry soil. This is a plant of damp, shaded woods, and in warm gardens sun and dry soil scorch the leaves and parch the bulbs. Plant it in part or full shade, in humus-rich soil that stays moist.
3. Digging up a plant that looks dead. The leaves die down in early summer as the seed ripens, and the bulbs rest underground until late winter. Mark the spot, keep the soil from drying right out, and wait.

When to plant

A season, not a soil temperature, decides sowing: the seed needs some weeks of warmth and then a cold spell before it wakes. Sow once, in late summer or autumn, so the warm soil comes first and winter supplies the cold.

Site, soil and setup

It stays in one place for years, so give it a permanent shaded corner outside the vegetable rotation. On heavy clay, read waterlogged soil before planting.

Container growing

A pot suits wild garlic well: it keeps a slow crop labelled and in one place, and it can move into deeper shade for summer. Choose a pot 30 cm or more across the rim; a standard 300 mm pot holds about 13.5 L of mix. Fill it with premium potting mix and a few handfuls of compost. The store sells one wild garlic, with no compact form.

• Water: keep the mix evenly moist while the plants are in leaf, and barely damp while they rest in summer.
• Feed: fish and seaweed blend at half strength, about 12.5 mL per 9 L, fortnightly from late winter until flowering.
• Position: bright shade in winter and spring, then the coolest, shadiest spot you have for summer.

Sowing Seeds

Sow the seed in a pot, where it can sit undisturbed and labelled for as long as it takes. The store's Wild Garlic seeds are Allium ursinum, 8 seeds to the packet. Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send Wild Garlic seeds to Western Australia.

Preparing the seed

The seed has a double dormancy, broken by stratification (a set spell of moist warmth or cold that tells a seed winter has passed). Outdoors, a sowing made before winter gets both spells naturally. Where winters are mild, or to save time, give the sown pot the three phases in the table below. Keep the mix damp throughout.

For more on the method, see seed treatments and stratification.

Sowing in a pot

• Fill a deep pot with moist seed-raising mix and label it with the date.
• Sow the seed 2 cm deep and about 5 cm apart.
• Water it in and keep the mix damp, never soggy, the whole time.
• Stand the pot in shade outdoors over winter, or run the phases above.
• Seedlings can appear in about 18 days or take 12 months or more.

Sowing direct

• Choose a shaded, moist, weed-free spot and rake in compost.
• Sow 2 cm deep, 5 to 10 cm apart, before winter.
• Mark the row, because nothing may show until spring or later.
• Keep the soil moist through winter.

Planting out

Grow pot-sown seedlings on for their first year. Plant them out once they are about 10 cm tall and frosts have passed, or as dormant bulbs in late summer or autumn. Set them 5 to 10 cm apart in a shaded bed. Seedlings planted in leaf need hardening off (a little longer outdoors each day, so they adjust to sun and wind) over 10 to 15 days.

Care by growth stage

Steady moisture while it is in leaf, and shade, decide how well wild garlic grows; feeding matters little.

If growth stalls in poor soil, scratch in all-purpose controlled release granular (NPK around 14-5-10) once in late winter, at half the label rate. Established plants are very frost hardy.

Companion planting

Wild garlic is up and done by early summer, so it pairs well with shade plants that fill the space when it rests.

Grows well with

• Impatiens, whose busy Lizzie types flower in shade through summer, over the resting bulbs.
• Aquilegia, a woodland perennial for part shade and moist, humus-rich soil.
• Mitsuba, a shade-loving herb that wants the same rich, moist soil.

Keep apart

• Garlic, which shares onion white rot and downy mildew with it.
• Chives, for the same shared diseases.

Harvesting Leaves and Flowers

Pick leaves from late winter while they are young and before the flowers open, because the flavour fades as the plants bloom.

• Let plants grow for about 2 years after the seedlings appear, until they form a small clump, before picking.
• Take one leaf from each bulb and leave the rest to feed it.
• Cut leaves near the base with scissors.
• Pick flowers soon after they open, for salads.
• Keep watering steady through picking, as for the harvest care stage.
• Check every leaf before it goes in the basket.

Fresh leaves keep only a few days, wrapped in a damp cloth in the fridge. For longer, chop them and freeze them in a bag or an ice cube tray. Leaves and flowers go into salads raw, or into soups, sauces and stews.

Common problems

No seedlings after months. Germination is slow and uneven, and some seed waits for a second warm and cold cycle, so keep the pot damp and labelled. Read more

No flowers yet. Plants from seed take 2 to 5 years to reach flowering size, so young plants make leaves only.

Bulbs rot. Soil that stays waterlogged, most often through the summer rest, rots the bulbs, so improve drainage or move the clump. Read more

Pests and diseases

Wild garlic has few serious problems, and those it has, it shares with onions and garlic.

Onion white rot (Sclerotium cepivorum). Leaves yellow and die back, and the bulb base grows white fluffy mould dotted with tiny black bodies. Lift and bin affected plants with their soil, because the fungus survives in soil for up to 20 years.

Downy mildew (Peronospora destructor). Pale yellow patches appear on leaves in cool, wet weather, then greyish-purple spores. Thin crowded clumps so air moves through them. Read more

Damping off (Pythium species and Rhizoctonia solani). Seedlings rot at soil level and topple over, most often in wet, crowded pots. Sow in fresh mix and keep it damp rather than wet. Read more

Prevention first

• Sow in fresh seed-raising mix, in clean pots.
• Plant away from beds where onions, garlic or leeks have had white rot.
• Never move soil or plants from a bed with white rot.
• Water the soil at the base of the plants, not the leaves.

Tips

1. Divide a crowded clump once the leaves have died down, and replant the bulbs straight away. See dividing perennials.
2. Near bushland or creek lines, cut the flower heads before the seed ripens, so it cannot seed itself there.
3. For more plants, sow your own seed as soon as it ripens, by midsummer. It goes in earlier than bought seed, to get the summer warmth before winter.