Is it a chive or other mystery chive relative?

[pigeonseed]

My chives (or are they?) are doing something strange, and un-chive-like!

They haven't flowered. Instead they've grown round heads, made up of many shiny, dark red bulbils, and now these have started to sprout tiny chive leaves, all curly-wurly.

This doesn't seem to match anything I've read about chives. They also don't look like tree onions - which always seem to have only a few bulbils, maybe 4.

When we moved here, these plants were growing in the overgrown garden, hidden beneath grass and bindweed. They looked like chives, smelt like chives and tasted like chives.

I dug them out of the lawn, and replanted them by a wall, and it's been too hot and dry for them. They quickly went woody and then produced these red things. 




Does anyone know what they are?

[pigeonseed]

[pigeonseed]

I've found the answer - it's crow garlic!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_vineale

It seems to be regarded as unpleasant - and gives garlic flavour to meat of animals who graze on it. I expect if you cut our family up and ate us we would be a bit garlicky too then!  ;D

[jennym]

Think the name for them is bulbils. In any case they are mini chive bulbs. You can plant them and grow chives from them, they're a bit more advanced in development than seeds. I've seen this before on leeks, also on lilies.

[jennym]

If they were wild garlic, they'd have produced white flowers in mid spring, and have broad leaves.

[Jayb]

Not a clue but they are so cute  ;D

[chriscross1966]

Ah... glad I looked here before I started another thread... anyway your mystery is solved.... I planted three cloves of chinese single-clove garlic back in the autumn of last year,. A friend gave them to me, they were from one of the German discount supermarkets, though I can't remember if it was netto, Lidl or Aldi. THey've been disappointing in terms of the bulbs they produced, but the scapes have turned out to be those things... I will try  and grow a few from them next year in the hopes that they will be single-clove...... if that works out then I'll have answered my own curiousity as to how the single-clovbe stuff gets grown commercially ~(cos itt sure isn;t the "plant little inner cloves in spring" method

chrisc

[Sholls]

A friend gave them to me, they were from one of the German discount supermarkets, though I can't remember if it was netto, Lidl or Aldi.

Lidl.  :) My local store is selling little baskets of 6-10 for 50p at the mo' (I think they're usually 99p). I planted a few up and they look identical.

Edit: Even if you don't plant them they pickle well.

[jennym]

Think that seed produces single clove garlic, as it does single bulb shallot.

[pigeonseed]

If they were wild garlic, they'd have produced white flowers in mid spring, and have broad leaves.

Yes that's ramsons, isn't it? But this is a different wild allium, apparently very common. But I'd never noticed them before! I suppose they blend in well in grass.

[realfood]

That is interesting chriscross1966. I also planted up 4 rounds of solo garlic from Lidl last Autumn, and they did not do well. They produced a very small head of garlic, split into about 3 cloves, but no scapes. It was a particularly harsh Winter with me, but my hardnecks did well and all produced scapes. Only a few of my softneck garlic survived the Winter.

[chriscross1966]

I'm having a bumper year for garlic, the softneck is out and is the best I've ever grown, the hardneck hasn't finished yet (flowerheads still haven't opened, I removed half the scapes I want to see if it makes a difference, the elephant garlic is in flower adn I'm just waiting for that to die down naturally (cos I want the seed), but a quick firkle has revealed that both hardneck and elephat are looking good, some of the elephant garlic isd the size of a grapefruit by the feel of it. The single clove was planted right next to the other types and has had the same conditions.....

chrisc

[pigeonseed]

chriscross1966, did you really definitely buy these same type of things? Because they're really minute bulbs, barely a bulb at all. I can't imagine you would want them if you saw them in a shop.

I think most people consider them a weed. Although we thought the leaves were quite okay! Mind you, they don't keep in leaf as long as chives do. They lose them in early summer.

Of course I'm sure our ancestors enjoyed them before they bred the monster garlic we eat now!

Do you think you might have bought those rocambole garlic type of things?

[jennym]

If they were wild garlic, they'd have produced white flowers in mid spring, and have broad leaves.

Yes that's ramsons, isn't it? But this is a different wild allium, apparently very common. But I'd never noticed them before! I suppose they blend in well in grass.

New one to me, just looked it up - the RHS treat it as a nuisance plant on their website!

[chriscross1966]

I was given them, mine look like yours but maybe bigger.... the bottom bulb is small though.... TBH I doubt its much bigger than the single clove that got  planted.......

chrisc

[pigeonseed]

yes you can see why they bred the big garlic we eat nowadays! But it's an interesting looking thing anyway. I always like the idea of 'free' plants that come to us, instead of us going to get them!