Wild Garlic in the PNW?

I fell in love with the wild garlic that grows rampantly in Ireland and Wales a couple of years ago and I've been trying to find some to grow in northwest washington. Finding wild garlic seed or bulbs is not so easy in this country, it seems! Any leads? Any experience growing it west of the cascades?

Thanks!

Have you tried http://www.asparagusgardener.com/wildgarlic.html

I think they win a prize of some sort for the funkiest website, but hopefully it can work for you

Yeah, that's a headache of a website if I ever saw one, though not without charm!

I'm actually more interested in Allium ursinum, a broadleaf wild garlic also known as Ramsons, to use as an understory crop in the forest garden. But I might try these folks, if I can figure out how to actually order anything from them.

Actually, while browsing another topic in this forum, I happened upon the Dave's Plant Scout page: http://davesgarden.com/products/ps/ which helped me to find some places that have various different species of wild garlic. Thanks!

They grow wild here in the east and I have thousands on my land. Since I live in Canada I'm sure I cannot send live plants over the border, but if you'd like I could gather some seed in July and mail you them. Although they multiply by bulbs rapidly, I've heard it takes 7 years from seed until they bloom.

By the way, they seem to prefer wet soil and need to be under deciduous trees because they do all their work before the trees leaf out in the spring.

Not allium ursinum I know, but allium triccocum (Ramps) is available here:
http://www.rampfarm.com/

Ah, this looks great. Thanks!

Kota Dubois wrote:They grow wild here in the east and I have thousands on my land. Since I live in Canada I'm sure I cannot send live plants over the border, but if you'd like I could gather some seed in July and mail you them. Although they multiply by bulbs rapidly, I've heard it takes 7 years from seed until they bloom.

By the way, they seem to prefer wet soil and need to be under deciduous trees because they do all their work before the trees leaf out in the spring.

It would be great to get some seed - thanks for the offer! Also, I live pretty close to Canada, and know some folks up there, so it's possible you could send some live plants to an address in BC and I could arrange to get them from there.

Yes… growing wild… that's what I want!

I'm going out there for most of the next two weeks, so I'll see what condition they are in. I'm starting to think that the best way to guarantee plant viability would be to wait until they go to sleep (end of June-ish) and then lift the bulbs for transport. I know when I use them in the spring the outer layers are quite mushy and I don't think they will travel well. And I don't think there would be any way of covering the smell which is really strong. Let me know what you think, and maybe contact your friend to see if they are willing to play middleman.

Ok, I just visited my friends in BC, and they're happy to receive the bulbs. Just let me know when you'd like to send them and I'll give you their address. Thank you!

Will do Harper. Happy gardening in the mean time.

I picked up a few pounds of misc bulbs from the farmers market a few years back and planted them all over our land, while not wild...I haven't touched them in 2 years and they have spread throughout the area. I also spread the seed heads out by putting them into seed balls, I just did this last fall so I haven't been back to check up if any have taken.

cool! that's a good idea. I haven't done any seedballs yet but it's a neat idea to try. rewilding the bulbs…

I had an "escape" from cleaning/drying "normal" garlic - probably one of the smaller hard things I call cormels since they resemble small gladiolius cormels more than they resemble garlic cloves (but are garlic, just small.) Could have been a seed, but less likely. Anyway, it must have gone over the side of the deck (or was a regular clove dug up and moved by a squirrel, but the location is right under where I dried garlic last year), as it's happily growing in a spot much darker than I would have thought it'd be happy in if I were planting it deliberately. It's shaded by the deck and by pine trees, though it would get some morning sun for a short time. I'll have to remember to push the envelope on places to try garlic beyond what I'd usually think of for next year...

I find garlic to be a prolific grower for our area, I have had several start in our compost piles, not sure what from but whenever anything pops up I dig it to see what it is...and find lots of potatoes, onions and garlic.