Re: Society Garlic
- Subject: Re: Society Garlic
- From: T* a* M* R*
- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 08:53:18 +1300
> Tim Longville wrote:
> Dotty words and names reminds me to pick up on Moira's mention of
> Society Garlic. I've often wondered but never asked anyone: why is it
> so-called? Was the smell supposed to be more 'refeened' than that of
> 'real' garlic? (Are the bulbs ever actually used as a culinary
> substitute for garlic? Have they ever been?) Actually, secondary
> question: does anyone ever 'really' use the so-called common name?
> 'Spontaneously,' I mean, rather than quoting it from the authority of
> a book? I rather suspect not - that it's one of those mythical 'common
> names' which either died out ages ago in actual usage or were never in
> actual usage anyway but made up by some long-gone writer of gardening
> books (folks who have a lot of sins, of various kinds, to answer
> for...).
Tim
I first came across this name when visiting a very fancy entirely
herb-based garden in Auckland during a garden festival. They were
selling quite a few plants and a potful of the variegated form of said
Society Garlic caught my eye -as much for the odd name as its
appearence. It was the sort of place where I suspect they would
inevitably use a cutsy name if availble in preference to a straight
botanical one.
Anyway, being unable to identify exactly what it was my curiosity got
the better of me and I took it home and planted it in a sunny dry place
on one of my upper terraces -which of course it absolutely hated and
gradually wasted away. It was only after its inevitable demise I just
happened to see an illustration in some book or other. Though in black
and white it was obvously my plant and on reading the blurb I found both
the name Tulbaghia AND Society Garlic mentioned. I think I might have
picked it originally had it not been variegated, but I was not aware
then that Tulbaghia did have a variegated form.
With this illumination I realized why my plant had been so unhappy. In
this garden at least Tulbaghia likes mositure and a mildly shaded
situation, but by then it was too late for that particular clump, poor
thing!
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata NZ,
where it's Summer in January and Winter in July.
