What is sorcerer's garlic?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 4, 2002

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Moly or sorcerer's garlic (Allium spp.) is a plant of legends, said to protect against sorcerers, witches, and vampires. Probably the first mention of this garlic is the story of Odysseus told in Homer's Odyssey (eighth century BCE?). Odysseus and the crew of the "fast black ship" could not get themselves back to Greece after the Trojan War and sailed the Mediterranean for years.

In one adventure, the black ship landed on Aeaea, the island of the sorceress, "Circe with the glorious hair". Circe concocted a potion with evil drugs and changed half of Odysseus' crew into pigs.

Sunny Twinkles Allium Allium moly Zones 3-9.
Sweet little golden-yellow alliums are inexpensive, multiply well, and look appealing when peeking out from under hosta leaves. Showy, star-shaped flowers appear in loose clusters and attract clouds of butterflies.

Bulb size 5+ cm, Deer resistant. Height: 10" Bloom Time: Late Spring to Early Summer

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As Odysseus went to rescue his men, Hermes stopped him on the trail and gave him, "a good medicine...power against the day of trouble." Odysseus eats the "good medicine" and is protected from Circe's poison.

The lily leek or yellow garlic (Allium moly) is thought to be the garlic of Homer's tale. But yellow garlic does not fit the description, "It was black at the root, but with a milky flower. The gods call it moly. It is hard for mortal men to dig up, but the gods have power to do all things."

Twenty-four hundred years later, John Gerard (1633 ed.) describes a garlic he calls, Moly Homericum, Homer's moly. The moly was supposedly a plant of great mystical properties, yet Gerard wrote, "...I doubt not but in time some excellent man or other will find out as many good virtues of them, as their stately and comely proportion should seem to be possessed with."

During the Dark Ages, leftover legends from Rome and Greece probably made garlic the panacea of the masses. It was thought to protect against the bubonic plague and the mass insanity during outbreaks of ergotism. And wearing garlic not only protected one from witchcraft, it served to prove to inquisitors that one was neither witch, warlock, nor heretic.

The Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at Temple University has a beautiful photograph of Allium moly.

Click here to view the photograph

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Allium roseum

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Delicate, non-fading, little pink blooms with light green highlights are lovely and long-lasting in borders or rock gardens. Wonderful as cut flowers. Fragrant, too. Free $25 off any order of $50 or more at Brecks Bulbs [More Alliums...]

Mountain Bells Mixture

Breck's Bulbs®

Got animals feasting on your bulbs and plants? This mixture of hardy Mountain Bells Allium bulbs is especially well-suited to create colourful gardens where rodents, rabbits and deer love to munch. The bulbs and the plant are rejected by even the most troublesome plant predators.

These eye-catching alliums are easy-to-grow and produce a riot of carefree colour. Blooms burst in small clusters during the drab, late spring months when petals of most bulbs have faded and summer flowers have yet to open.

Sweetly fragrant Mountain Bells multiply freely year after year with hundreds of blooms.

Allium oreophilum, A. moly and A. neopolitanum

Height: 10-14" Bloom Time: Late Spring. Zones 3-8. 4-5 cm bulbs. Deer resistant.

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Sparkler Allium Mix

Breck's Bulbs®

Colourful clusters of up to 30 bell-shaped flowers burst from Sparkler's stems like fireworks in the sky.

Mix includes golden-yellow, red-violet and pure white flowers, set off by blue-green and silvery-green foliage. allium flavum, A. carinatum, A. carinatum 'album'. Zones 3-9. Top-size bulbs. Deer resistant.

Height:16" Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer

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Beau Regard Allium

Breck's Bulbs®

The easiest way to add drama and excitement to your landscape! These gigantic lilac-pink flowers reach a full 10" diameter and last up to three weeks. So eye-catching that passersby will stop to admire.

Unlike most tall alliums, this variety produces glossy, deep green foliage even after the flowers are gone. Imagine a glorious border or bed of them- they love full or partial sun. outstanding for freshly cut and dried bouquets, too. Zones 3-8. 20+ cm bulbs, deer resistant. Height: 36-50" Blooms: Early Summer

This Item Ships In The Fall Click here - Free $25 off any order of $50 or more at Brecks Bulbs
More Alliums - Free $25 off any order of $50 or more at Brecks Bulbs