Society Garlic

It's an herb, but it's in my large front garden.  It smells like garlic but it's not the garlic you find in the grocery store.  However, I was told by Sue, who shared the garlic from her garden, that yes, the garlic leaves can be chopped up and used for a light garlic flavor in a dish.

I figured the garlic was just there to "fill space" in a very large garden bed.  Then I find out from Kim that society garlic blooms.  Cool.  The other morning I went outside to water the garden and from the low sunrise light, I thought I saw a small slug on the garlic.  I actually picked up a piece of mulch to get the slug off of the leaves... but it was attached.  It wasn't a slug, it was a bud!  Here's a picture.  The bud is in the middle (mid way to the leaves) of the leaves.  Kind of hard to make it out, because it blends with the mulch color.

I'm eager to see the blooms!  Interestingly enough society garlic (and onions and garlic) belong to the lily family.  Society garlic is a plant from South Africa.

Looks like this is a plant that can grow year-round outdoors.  It tolerates summer heat well and is supposed to bloom for months.  It does best in the full sun and light, sandy soil.  It will die in temperatures below 25 degrees, but it will grow back rapidly too.

I'll update another picture when it blooms :)

Just starting to bloom, you can see the bud better below:

Closer look at the bloom:

I never knew garlic could look so lovely!  I have another group of society garlic in a different section starting to bloom :)  They are great to have in a garden :)