Growing Garlic? Society Garlic That Is

            Hi everybody and welcome! This week has been one of the best I have had in a long time. My daughter and her husband flew to Orlando all the way from Chicago and met my wife and I on my birthday, which was April 23^rd. Essentially, I feel like a teenager who is getting just a tad older! I was treated to the time of my life at Walt Disney World where the kid inside me was readily able to emerge. In fact, I rode my first roller coaster in almost 15 years! That was definitely a thrill. Of course while I was there, I just had to check out the landscaping. The park has just about every plant imaginable. The park makes great use of many exotic ferns, exotic palms and of course many of our common annuals such as vinca and marigolds. I also noticed quite a lot of star jasmine was also used. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the park, be sure not to overlook the wonderful landscaping.

            Many of us use garlic as a supplement along with our daily vitamin but not many of us think of planting garlic in our gardens, society garlic, that is. Society garlic is not really garlic at all. Its only similarity to real garlic is that it is a member of the lily (Alliaceae) family. Society garlic can create a splash of purple color that can accent any garden or landscape. It looks best when it is planted in groups but it can also used as a border around larger trees and shrubs. One of the most distinctive aspects of the plant is the smell. They smell just like garlic cloves. Although they are fragrant almost any time of day, the fragrance is strongest at night.

            Society garlic are easy to grow and will grow well in well-drained, light sandy soil. They will tolerate full sun to partial shade however they will require regular watering during the hot summer months. Dividing them as they multiply can easily propagate the plants.

            I have read from some sources that the plants are edible, however I probably would not recommend that practice. It is best to use them as an ornamental plant. I have also been told that they deter moles but I have no actual proof of that. If anybody experiments with that, please let me know if you had positive results with the experiment.

If you really want to see how attractive a bed of society garlic really looks, take a ride down Westmoreland Blvd in Port St. Lucie. The road is off of Port St. Lucie Blvd. near the Mobil station and goes around the Club Med area. The city has done an outstanding job of landscaping this entire stretch of roadway and uses society garlic as one of the main attractions. You might even be able to get some landscaping ideas for your own home, I know I did.

            I almost forgot to mention one other added bonus, the plant is a perennial and it blooms from spring to mid summer.

If you grow hibiscus, one of the most annoying, and destructive pests are little critters called aphids. Aphids are small soft-bodied insects that congregate mainly on tender new growth and also right around the bloom of the plant. These creatures feed in large colonies and can multiply quite rapidly. Aphids can often cause the leaves of ornamentals to curl up and the insects can hide in these curls thus escaping the effects of insecticides. Aphids do their damage by sucking life-sustaining juices from the plant thus making it weak and vulnerable to disease. Since hibiscus are somewhat tender, you cannot use Malathion as an insecticide of choice as it will cause your plant to drop leaves. The best remedy and protection is to use a systemic insecticide such as Orthene or Orthenex. Orthenex does double duty as it takes care of the pests and also helps with some diseases. You can also use a rose and flower insect spray, but be sure aphids are listed as one of the insects it kills.

            That’s all for this week and I hope you found the information useful and entertaining. Next week I will report about the progress of my pillar geranium that I planted as an experiment about 2 months ago. See you then.