Growing Garlic for flowers and bulbs?

[AkionTotocha]

(All my threads seem to end with question marks)

This year I'm turning the raised border from a patch of ugly dirt into a flower bed, using a lot of annuals and bulbs.

However it's a good space for growing things as its full sun for most of the day and dappled shade for a the rest in summer. I don't have the space in my back garden, and the dedicated veg beds haven't been constructed yet.

Just wondering if garlic plants make decorative flowers. If in a mixed border of flowers would they blend in? Or would they look obvious like cabbages do?

(They make those purple Pompon things on stalks, right?)

The only experience I have with garlic is the tiny wild things with white flowers and big fat leaves. Ideally I'd look for something 2-3ft, but if they can be confused with something poisonous then obviously it's a case of waiting this year until I've got the veg beds and planting a dedicated line in November..

[Scarlet]

Well, garlic does through out a flower spike, you can chop that off and eat it before it flowers - it's called a "scape". But you would generally cut it before it flowers to ensure all the plants energy is used to produce a bulb instead of a flower....they are usually ready to dig up end of June/July.

Personally I'd grow something a little more decorative that you don't need to dig out. A wigwam of bamboo canes with some french beans,mangetout or perhaps some rainbow chard.

[planetologist]

Garlic comes in two types, soft-neck and hard-neck. I can never remember which is which, but the more common one tends not to flower.

If you want a 2-3 foot flowering allium, grow leeks, though they are biennial.

[vixylix]

the bright lights rainbow chard is beautiful - I always think it would be a shame to cut the stalks!!