How can I get rid of this? I'm at fault for buying 1 measly little plant a few years ago, but now it has spread fall and wide, and actually is choking out my iris.
I have tried digging it out, but those bulbs are crammed in tight, and I can't get them all. It's already too tall to smother.
The bed it has invaded is supposed to have iris, salvia, nepeta, baptisia, roses and ornamental grasses. Last season, I was out of town during bloom season, so this plant bloomed and spread seeds everywhere.
Help?

I'm afraid you will have to dig the entire bed up, at least to the extent that you find the bulbs.

Hey there, I know this is not an answer to your questions, but are you referring to Society garlic/Tulbaghia violacea? Maybe what you are seeing popping up is a different plant?
I have always thought Society garlic is not invasive and have had the same 4 plants staying politely in one bed - only the clump is expanding in size but not popping up anywhere else. Maybe you have been invaded by the Allium vineale/wild garlic?

...or maybe I am just plain wrong in my thinking.

Hire a teenager with a strong back? Offer him/her $25 bucks (or so?) to do the whole job. I'll bet you'll be happy.

I have the same experience as Greene with Society garlic, not invasive. How about a picture?

I looked at the photo of allium vineale in our database, and that's not the plant I have. It is as tall as the daffodils in that same bed. It has leaves as thick as a regular onion. The bulbs look like shallots, but smell more like garlic. Each leaf stalk has a single onion bulb, not a divided bulb like garlic.
I will try to get photos tomorrow.
They really blend in well with the daffodils. Same size, only these have thick hollow stems. The seed heads that remain on some are bigger than a ping pong ball and the bloom was white.
Hope that rings a bell with someone.
Oh how I wish I could find a teenager who could do the heavy work. I don't think such a thing exists anymore.
Mine used to do all that for me for free, but then they went away to school and got real jobs where they don't have to dig any holes.

Maybe try the local Scout leader? Maybe one of his troop would do it. If there is an Eagle Scout project on tap the candidate has to raise funds for it himself.

Not invasive for me either

I will bet your university has horticultural or even forestry students who would love to earn some extra money. Contact the Department of Horticultural Science or the Forestry Department and see what comes up. Also, your county extension service may be able to produce able-bodied students to do the work.

Cindi, do these plants produce flowers?

Try looking up Allium triquetrum and see if the description matches.

Here is the evil plant:




This clump appears to be the mother of all this evil. . It had a tag in the middle, and potting soil around the oldest bulbs. I remember buying variegated society garlic, but this stuff isn't variegated. The leaves are flat, not round as I thought. they are very juicy inside.







I do not remember ever seeing little bulbs up under the bloom, either. When I did a google search, that seemed to be an important factor on naming this plant.

this looks like my plant:
http://wimastergardener.org/?q...
I always thought garlic chives bloomed purple. This stuff has a white bloom. Allium tuberosum.

It looks like I need to dig them out and sell them for food!
I think I am going to try saturating that bed so they are easier to dig. We have only received 2" of rain this year so the soil is really hard.
Ken, today I asked one of my customers if her son would want to do some gardening work for me. He might work out. I get calls from people needing a gardener because the extension has given them my number!

Thanks for your help, guys!

Before you eradicate them all, please know that if you were to exclude light as they grow so they are blanched they are a pricey delicacy in Asian cooking. The blanching makes them more tender and easier to digest. Sometimes called nira or nira grass. Select young plants, cover with a tallish black plastic pot, place a rock or brick so it won't blow away and wait until the leaves turn light yellow or almost white. (I learn this stuff from my friend Plant Sister who lives half way around the world.)

Garlic chives does have a lavender/purple bloom. Mine are all blooming. The flowers are quite tasty, in fact and make a nice salad garnish.

Greene, I will do that! I have black pots, bricks, and Asian friends! Thanks for that idea!
Ken, I have chives in my rose garden that do have lovely smallish purple blossoms. I use those in salads. We also grow garlic in the rose bed, and it goes into our stir fry dishes. (When my kids were young, they called them chip dip plants, and that's how we used them! I'll never forget my daughter taking a bouquet of them to her teacher...on her own, and me finding out later!)
I think I will dig out the clumps that are invading the other plants' root systems, and leave the rest to grow, with and without covering. There's an area by my bee hives where I can toss the clumps, or do you think that would make the honey taste garlicky? I also have a bank that is eroding, and the way these bulbs stick together, it might just be the right place for them.

Our bees visit our garlic flowers here and the honey doesn't taste like garlic at all.

Terrific! Thank you for telling me that!
We have an acre of clover for the bees, but really I can't taste any clover in the honey.

My garlic chives have flat leaves and white star shaped flowers in flat-ish umbels on tall stems, and they did seed themselves too . I think you have nailed down the ID.

I erred in my flower colors for the two chives. The Italian chives have lavender flowers and the garlic chives the white flowers. I apparently went brain-dead. We just cut some of those Italian chives with flowers Thursday to go on baked Irish potatoes!

dyzzypyxxy said:My garlic chives have flat leaves and white star shaped flowers in flat-ish umbels on tall stems

That's an excellent way to describe them. Do you mind if I add that wording to the database here?