Insects and bees love the nectar in elephant garlic flowers

Elephant garlic, also commonly called Russian garlic,  is occasionally found listed in seed and bulb catologues and seed saver lists. In some regions it is found naturalised on old house sites and it is a welcome, or sometimes, unwelcome inhabitant of many suburban gardens – but it is not garlic.
So what is it? Its botanical name is Allium ampeloprasum (Ampeloprasum Group) ‘Elephant Garlic’ and it is actually a close relative of the leek, A. ampeloprasum (Porrum Group). It is only more distantly related to true garlic (A. sativum). Other common names are giant garlic, great-headed garlic, Levant garlic, Yorktown onion, and in French, ail d’orient, and German, pferdknoblauch.

A. ampeloprasum is the wild plant from which both elephant garlic and leeks are derived. It is native to Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and parts of Russia, where it grows on dry, rocky or sandy ground and near cultivated land. The specific name ampeloprasum comes from the Greek words ampelos and prason which mean a vine and leek respectively, signifying that this leek-like plant grew among grape vines. They may have self-sown from the wild, or perhaps they were an early attempt at companion planting. Allium species have been used for centuries to protect more tender plants from hungry insects. Elephant garlic bulbs have been collected from the wild and from gardens for many centuries. A wild English variety is often found in places associated with early Christian sites and may have originally been cultivated by the monks who lived there.

The flower with the remnant spathe to the left.

The giant bulbs, cloves and strong stems.

Elephant garlic looks superficially like a giant form of garlic, hence the name. The leaves are large, blue-green and linear with a central dividing rib. In early or mid-summer, from the centre of the leaves, a solid, cylindrical flower stalk grows to a height of a tall man. Flower heads, only slightly smaller than soccer balls, form singly at the top of the flower stalks in spring and summer. These flower heads are covered by a single long-beaked spathe which resembles a swan’s head and splits to reveal the densely-packed pink or mauve flowers. Both the flower buds and heads look dramatic at the back of a mixed border.

Elephant garlic is grown from cloves or rounds planted in autumn, winter and spring in mild climates, or autumn and spring in cool climates. Plant the cloves and rounds blunt or root ends down about 30 centimetres apart. The tops of the bulbs should be about 5 centimetres below the soil surface. Plants do best in a rich, deeply cultivated bed and like full sun and well-drained soil, but they are very hardy and really need no special treatment. Regular harvesting and/or confinement to a definite bed ensures that elephant garlic will not become a weed. It grows from the tropics to temperate Australia and tends to grow taller and to have a stronger flavour in cooler regions.
Elephant garlic bulbs form under the soil, can reach 10 centimetres in diameter and consist of 3 to 6 large cloves. External to these cloves are anything from one to twenty small bulblets, up to one centimetre across, with a flat side. Plants that do not flower often form a single, large, symmetrical clove, also known as a round, up to 4 centimetres in diameter, rather than a bulb. Plants grown from rounds or from very large cloves, frequently produce a large bulb with several cloves and a flower stalk. Plants grown from a smaller clove or from a bulblet usually produce a round and no flower stalk. So elephant garlic tends to alternate between the production of cloves and the production of rounds, and to go to seed only every second year. A well established clump will usually have a mixture of bulbs with cloves and rounds, so there will always be some flower heads.
Bulbs are harvested when the flowers begin to dry out. The whole plant is dug and the bulbs hung to dry with part of the stem attached, in a shady but dry position. Flower heads with stalks are hung in bunches in a similar position.

Elephant garlic rounds

Elephant garlic has a mild, sweet flavour somewhere between garlic and onion. Cloves and rounds are large and easy to peel. They can be eaten raw, sliced into salads or, steamed or boiled as a vegetable with or without a sauce. They can also be cooked like onions in soups, stews or casseroles, or baked in the oven with roasts. Where a true, pungent garlic flavour is needed only true garlic (A. sativum) should be used. Elephant garlic bulbs are high in vitamins A, C and E and are a healthy addition to any diet. Slice young leaves and add to salads or use as a garnish. Feed bulbs and leaves to stock or add them to mash for chickens. The garlic flavour can be transferred to the meat and eggs – perhaps a bonus for the meat, but a pavlova made from garlic flavoured eggs might not impress the guests.
Flowers, fresh or dried, make an interesting addition to flower arrangements because of their striking appearance. The strong odour can be overpowering when fresh but this disappears after about three months. Elephant garlic can also be planted at the back of rose borders or near climbing roses to help keep aphids and other pests at bay.

This plant has much to recommend it. It is hardy and easy to grow, it looks dramatic and has a multitude of uses in the kitchen. Elephant garlic may not be garlic but it deserves a place in the garden.

The dramatic flowers look good in flower arrangements

Ellen with sunflowers

By Ellen

Mum always thought it was only a matter of time before I became I keen gardener. But on the eve of my 22^nd birthday I still don’t feel any strong desire to rave about the brilliance of borage or the magnificence of mint. Growing up with my mother Penny Woodward was always a trade off between gardens and ice cream, gardens and play grounds, gardens and mini golf. My brother and I went with her to the gardens, if we behaved ourselves we got ice cream (or a visit to a play ground, or mini golf). This being said, some of the most memorable hours of my childhood were in gardens. Especially Heronswood in Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula, watching the goldfish and proudly identifying the elephant garlic. I came to know this allium quite well over the ten years Mum spent writing her book Garlic and friends.  Garden visits took us all over Australia, to find mazes, Avenues of Honour, new gardens and plant-oriented ways to write about our family holidays.
When I moved out of home at eighteen I was faced with my own plants. My general philosophy of plant it and ignore it was tested when I nurtured a spearmint plant on the windowsill of my very small room in the halls of residence. Plants were important to lots of people there, they brought some green life to otherwise very grey and brown rooms. One student’s windowsill was adorned with beer bottles, vodka bottles and parsley and carrot plants. Another had a small lemon tree he called Douglas.

Ellen's young hands showing how to plant seed from Growing Easy Herbs

My spearmint plant wilted but survived under my care and I soon added an aloe vera plant.This one I managed to over water. It drooped unhappily until I took it home to mum for some appropriate care. As I shifted houses my small plant entourage grew, and I am now the proud owner of a peppermint, which is better than spearmint, the same aloe vera that has so far survived three and a half years of my care, a chilli plant and a silver beet, all in pots.
I still don’t think I’m a gardener, but it is surprising what has seeped in. You know you’ve absorbed something when you can pick out mistletoe, mint, thyme and pineapple sage, when you can tell the difference between lemons and limes and be able to inform your housemates that that wilting tree is probably a nectarine (even though there was no fruit).

Ellen's older hands demonstrating how to divide costmary to replant.

Growing up with a garden photographer has meant also doing time as a hand model. It is the job I usually got because I was better at sitting still than my younger brother. So I’ve held secateurs as I pretended to cut any number of plants, planted seeds and cuttings, watered worm juice from mum’s new and very special watering can, trying very hard to keep my shadow out of the photo and I’ve held compost at every conceivable angle. For the best array of photos of my hands see Growing Easy Herbs for Beauty Fragrance and Flavour, my hands in that range from six years to twenty-one years.
Growing up with gardening has been an interesting experience, and one that I highly recommend. So introduce your child to gardens and plants, even if it is just so they know how wonderful garlic is, that mint tea is great for queasy stomachs and is so much better made with a fresh mint leaves, that aloe vera soothes burns and that you can use a sage leaf to clean your teeth when you’re separated from your toothbrush.