Variegated society garlic is a grassy, clumping ground cover perennial growing to about 50cm tall. It has edible lilac flowers from spring to autumn, is cold and heat hardy and will flower more abundantly in full sun, though also grows well in shade. Useful for difficult hot corners of the garden as it will tolerate prolonged drought, although it flourishes with regular watering.

The variegated leaves are long, narrow, strap-like, slightly fleshy and smell strongly of garlic when bruised. They grow from fat, tuberous roots which spread to form clumps of plants. The pinkish-mauve tubular flowers, clustered into umbels of up to 20 flowers, are held above the leaves on a tall flower stalk, and appear over a long period from spring to late summer. They, too, smell of garlic when picked or crushed. It is a very useful plant for the herb garden, as both the leaves and flowers can be used in salads and other dishes. The crushed leaves may be used to help cure sinus headaches and to discourage moles from the garden (by their strong smell). It looks great as a mass planting and is very popular as an urban landscape plant, but probably better not to plant it close to a seating area as the aroma can become rather dominant.

The cut flowers last for a long time, placed in a vase of water. In the image above, they have been combined with Gasteria flowers.