Plant · P-366

Elephant Garlic

Allium ampeloprasum var ampeloprasum

Elephant garlic is actually a leek, not a true garlic, which is why its jumbo cloves carry such a mild flavor. Cloves go into the ground in mid-autumn, root over winter, then swell as spring daylight lengthens, giving a harvest of bulb plus edible winter leaves, flowers and bulbils - a genuine green crop through a season when little else is cutting. It is dormant through the hottest part of summer, so it needs no summer water, and its jumbo bulbs sell at a novelty premium at farmers markets that ordinary garlic doesn't command.