How to grow Wild garlic

Allium ursinum · ramsons, bear's garlic, buckrams

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) — a woodland bulb whose broad, garlic-scented leaves come up in late winter, followed by white starry flowers in spring; by midsummer the whole plant dies down until next year. The leaves are best before flowering, and the flowers and bulbs are edible too. Its young leaves look like the poisonous lily of the valley and the deadly autumn crocus (Colchicum). In large amounts it is poisonous to dogs.

Checked against sources: October 3, 2026

Quick facts

Type	Herb
Family	Amaryllidaceae
Light	Partial shade
Frost	tolerates light frost
Germination	150 days
Sowing to harvest	515 days
Where it grows	Open ground

When to plant

Plant in autumn, about a month before your first autumn frost, so the roots grow before winter; it flowers or crops the next season.

Harvest comes about 17 months after planting.

Dates for your city are on the frost dates page.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Growth	every 7 days	—	—
Harvest	every 7 days	—	—

Growing notes

Light

Grows from sun to deep shade but does best in semi-shade, ideally under deciduous trees.

Soil

Moist, humus-rich soil that is not acidic; it tolerates soil that is very wet in winter, but bulbs rot in soil that stays soggy.

Care

Plant bought bulbs fairly deep, from summer (once the leaves have died down) to autumn, straight into their final place; seed is best sown fresh in early summer. Bulbs give a harvest from their second year of growth, seedlings from their third. It needs almost no care beyond moist soil, but it spreads fast by bulbs and self-sown seed and can carpet a bed, so give it a shady corner of its own. Pick leaves from late winter until flowering — the flavour fades once the flowers open, but the flowers can be eaten too. LOOKALIKE WARNING — mix-ups with lily of the valley and autumn crocus cause poisonings every spring, some of them fatal. Wild garlic leaves grow straight from the base, while lily of the valley carries 2–3 leaves on one stem and has bell-shaped flowers. A crushed wild garlic leaf smells of garlic, but the smell lingers on your hands and can fool the next test; if in doubt, do not eat it, and if you feel unwell after a meal, call a poison centre at once. In Ukraine it is in the Red Data Book — collecting and selling wild plants is prohibited, so buy bulbs or seed from a nursery.

Pests and diseases of Wild garlic

Rust

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.