Wild Garlic Seeds (Allium ursinum)

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), also called Ramsons, is a native bulb-forming perennial of damp deciduous woodland, hedgebanks and shady stream sides. Its broad, glossy, lance-shaped leaves emerge in early spring and are followed from April to June by loose, rounded heads of starry white flowers on stems that can reach 30 to 80cm. The whole plant smells of garlic and the leaves are widely gathered for cooking.

Its early flowers are a useful source of nectar and pollen for hoverflies, solitary bees and other spring insects at a time when woodland flowers are scarce. Wild Garlic dies back completely by mid-summer, so it makes a good companion for later-growing plants, and over the years it spreads by seed and by bulb division to carpet damp shade.

It needs shade or partial shade and moist, humus-rich soil that stays damp through spring. It suits a wet, shady corner, a woodland floor, a north-facing hedgebank or the shaded side of a stream or pond. It is not a meadow plant and will not persist in open, dry or sunny ground.

Sow in autumn for preference, or in spring, onto bare, moist soil beneath trees or shrubs, surface-sown and firmed in or lightly covered with leaf litter. The seed needs a period of winter cold to germinate, and plants take two or three years to build bulbs large enough to flower, so patience is needed. Once established it needs no cutting; simply leave the leaves to die back naturally. Combine with our woodland and shade mixes or single species that share the same damp, shady conditions.