Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) in 90 mm Bottomless Pot

Botanical name: Tulbaghia violacea
(violacea means ‘violet colour’, a reference to the flowers)

Dimensions of the bottomless pot are 90 mm square × 150 mm deep. The square shape and bottomless design produces beautifully straight and deep roots with no spiralling whatsoever. This gives these young plants every advantage once planted out.

Society garlic is a clumping perennial and gets its name from the claim that it does not cause garlic breath — your mileage may differ. What I do know, for me at least, is that casually eating a leaf whilst out and about the plants leaves a wonderful after-taste (if you’re into garlic as we are) that makes me feel that I’ve already eaten — to the point that I actually forget to eat sometimes!

You can apparently eat the entire plant, bulb and all, but we have never eaten the bulbs. I regard this plant as a garlic chive-equivalent, and go only for the leaves, which taste more garlicky than garlic chives IMO! Really nice.

The beautiful purple flowers (also edible) appear midsummer through to autumn, and these together with the clumping nature of this plant make this a lovely ornamental border plant as well.