Allium roseum

Allium roseum, pink garlic, is a Mediterranean botanical species found in dry meadows, vineyards, rocky areas, and cultivated places. It is becoming rare and is now protected in some regions. It is a small bulbous plant with a natural appearance. Its charming pink flowers appear in spring or early summer, depending on the climate. This ornamental garlic is easy to grow in well-drained soil. It loves the sun, and tolerates both dry summers and fairly cold winters. If the conditions are right, this edible ornamental garlic will naturalise in the garden and come back every year. It is ideal for countryside decorations and natural scenes, and can also be grown in pots.

Allium roseum (synonyms Allium albidum, A. ambiguum, A. amoenum, A. illyricum) belongs, like all garlic, to the Amaryllidaceae family. Its habitat corresponds to fields, dry meadows, vineyards, and hedges. It is an herbaceous plant with a garlic smell, perennial due to its small globose bulb. The foliage emerges from the ground in late winter. The bright green foliage consists of upright, rather short, narrow, and rolled-up leaves. The leaves contain a fragrant latex. The flowering takes place between April and late June, depending on the climate. The thin floral stems, about 30cm (12in) tall, bear irregular and rather loose umbels with a diameter of 4 to 5cm (2in). The bell-shaped flowers are small (1cm), with 6 semi-opened pale-pink petals. The fruits are small round capsules containing a few small black seeds. The foliage dries up just after flowering, while the bulb goes into dormancy. The soil should be rather dry when it enters this resting stage. It multiplies easily by producing numerous bulblets.

Plant this pink garlic in dense clumps along the edge of a countryside bed, in a flowering meadow, among shrubs, in a rockery, or in a pot. It is ideal in a hot garden without watering, and it adapts easily elsewhere as long as it is protected from excessive humidity, both in summer and winter. To hide its absence in summer, plant it with thyme, erodium, or bloody cranesbills, for example. Create a beautiful scene with wildflowers: poppies and corn poppies, damask nigellas, bluebottle centaurea, corncockle, etc. Finally, all garlics are edible, in all their parts. The leaves and flowers can be used to flavour salads, for example.