Plant Overview
This is our native wild relation to the onion and garlic. Milder in taste and smell than cultivated garlic, it is a useful addition to dishes and salads. Lovely white flowers adorn the plants from April to June. Perennial and fully hardy.
Good for underplanting trees and shrubs. Will slowly colonise an area to create a carpet. Like Bluebells, Wild garlic is an ancient woodland indicator species.
Only available for a short period in late winter, you are buying ten 'in the green' bulbs for the price stated above. Add 2 to the basket to buy 20 bulbs and so on. 'In the green' means that you are buying bulbs which are shooting and/or have leaves (which is the most reliable means of transplanting snowdrops). Free delivery for bulb-only orders.
Height: 25cm
Common names: Wild garlic; Ramsons; Badger's Flower; Cowleekes; Cows's leek; Cowleek; Buckrams; Broad-leaved garlic; Wood garlic Bear leek; Stinking Lilies; Eurasian wild garlic; Bear's garlic.
Ramsons is from the Saxon word hramsa, meaning 'garlic'. There is evidence it has been used in English cuisine since Celtic Britons over 1,500 years ago.
Cows love to eat them, hence the common names regarding cows. In Southern England, dairy farmers have occasionally had milk from their herds rejected because of the garlic flavour imparted to it by the cows after grazing upon the plant.
All parts of the Allium ursinum plant have culinary uses, including the flower which can be used to garnish salads.
The leaves of the Allium ursinum are the most popular part to be used in food. Leaves can be used in raw salads and carry a very subtle garlicky flavour similar to that of garlic chives. When picked the leaves bruise, making them smell even stronger. When cooked the flavour of the leaves becomes softer and sweeter.
The leaf is often chopped and used to replace garlic and other herbs in many recipes. The bulb can be used in a similar way to clove garlic.
Popular dishes using the plant include pesto, soups, pasta, cheese, scones and Devonnaise.
Advantages of 'in the green' bulbs:
- root system is already developed
- you can see where you plant, avoiding bare patches and gluts
- easy to handle and no guessing which way up to plant
- plants establish much quicker and more reliably than dry bulbs
- plant from mid-January through to April
Photo 1: Adrian Pingstone, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
