Allium flavum subsp. flavum

Allium flavum, commonly known as yellow garlic, is an ornamental wild garlic. This species has become rare. It is characterised by a low habit and umbels similar like golden Bengal fires, swaying in the wind. It is ideal in rockeries or very well-drained beds. It withstands the cold and very dry summers. If conditions are met, the yellow garlic will naturalise in the garden and come back every year.

Allium flavum belongs, like all ornamental garlics, to the Amaryllidaceae family. It is a perennial plant with a bulb, of Mediterranean origin, spontaneous in France but also present in Spain, in Italy, in Eastern and Central Europe, as far as the Caucasus. Its preferred habitat consists of dry lawns, and arid, rocky or sandy soils, most often limestone. Reaching a height of 40 to 50cm (16 to 20in) when flowering, the yellow garlic produces a few rare deciduous, ribbon-like, flat, thin, fleshy, glaucous green leaves that disappear before flowering. From June to August, several floral stems appear. Each one carries an inflorescence 3.5cm (1in) in diameter. The umbel is composed of small, shiny yellow flowers, which are bell-shaped and pendulous. They have prominent stamens, and are carried by long yellow pedicels. 

Plant this original species in a rockery, grouping the bulbs in a gravel bed or in a pot. The important thing is to keep the soil dry in summer and not too wet in winter. Combine it with perennials that thrive in dry soil such as stipa, perennial Geranium sanguineum, Dianthus gratianopolitanus, santolinas, and oregano for a scene reminiscent of Mediterranean scrubland. This little yellow garlic can also be paired with small blue agapanthus.