Hi Lisa, Welcome to the wonderful world of scapes! No need to trim your scapes - you can eat the whole thing, including the umbel capsule (pod & beak). I snap my scapes off when they are about 12-18" long and still tender, then shake them in a plastic bag with some salt, curry powder, and EV olive oil. I then throw them whole on the grill until half browned, or you can cut and stir fry them indoors as well. Positively delicious! TomNJ

The fact that you had any of them growing in the summer at all is a little surprising. Garlic is not something you plant in the spring with everything else expecting a fall harvest. This is something you plant, for you in z5, by late Sept. Plant it with the tops at least 2" below the surface in well enriched soil. About a month later, even if there are little sprouts, carefully mulch the entire area. I use ground up leaves, maybe 3" or so in a colder place like yours. Don't break shoots or bend them over as you apply the mulch. We want some roots to develop. Sometime in early spring, you'll see these things come alive - feed them some then, fertilize, and take care of them, keeping out weeds, etc. For you, probably late June or early July you'll see the lower leaves turning yellow - and when a good number of those leaves turn yellow, maybe three up from the bottom, then it is time to harvest. The process starts over next Sept. Don't put any of it in the fridge. Small bulbils can be planted as well - I usually sow them thickly in pots buried in my garden ( so they don't end up everywhere). When I get some good sprouts, I just separate them out of the pot and transplant them to their growing location - then re-level the soil in the pot and put it back in the garden. Some will sprout from the pot at all kinds of strange times through the year. I expect rounds from bulbils, so I'll dig and fall replant for future production. I keep enough garlic, and enough varieties, that I grow all I use - and I use it liberally all year long, and what I like about it is that it is really fairly easy. In mid August, I took some spaces in my garden that emptied out, amended with compost, dug it in well, and raked it out. That's the hardest thing I do, but the beds are already set to go. I can probably plant and label everything in about an hour, and I grow enough for our family and extra. In early winter, I'll be gathering neighbors leaves anyway to grind and mulch, so my mulching is easy as well. You can do this.

The sand leek (Allium scorodoprasum) is also sometimes called rocambole and usually but not always has bulbils along with the flowers. Elephant garlic is also sometimes called and even sold incurrectly as rocambole. The sand leek will have small bulbs with small cloves, and the elephant garlic will have large cloves on bigger bulbs or simply as big rounds and will have much heavier and robust foliage, while the sand leek is much daintier. If that is the foliage in the picture, I would guess that you got elephants that were originally identified as rocambole, or perhaps one of its wilder leek relatives such as the kurrat or Egyptian leek which is a bit smaller than the closely related elephants and there are several strains of each of those as well. Looks like one of the leeks to me. (they are all edible)

There are primarily three ways daylilies increase, non-sexually. 1. Division. Most modern hybrids increase this way. When the fan scapes, the fan divides into two fans. At some point the fans in the middle of the clump will be deprived of sun and nutrients and will die back. At this point, division is necessary for good bloom as only the outside fans will scape. 2. Stoloniferous. This is a modified stem that grows from the crown 1,2 to 12 inches away, slightly under the soil surface and terminates with a new fan. These plants are very easily to separate/divide and grow in loose clumps that don't need dividing as often. 3. Rhizomaceous. This is also a modified stem that grows from the crown slightly under the soil surface. The rhizome will continue to grow for quite a distance. Small nodes on the rhizome produce new fans/plants. These types of daylilies are often called invasive. The H. fulva family are mostly rhizomaceous. Ditch lilies and Kwanso are examples. This type doesn't need division - maybe root barriers. Ed