If you don't cut the seed heads off of 'Purple Sensation', the parent plants don't seem to mind. BUT the dang things also seed like mad, and the seedlings are a bit smaller-flowered than the parent plants. You won't know this for 3 to 5 years, at which point you will have a purple lollipop farm. The seedlings are VERY low-key and easy to miss, especially in mixed plantings. Right now I'm leaving all seedheads on in the front garden, where I could stand to have some more Alliums. The back garden gets deadheaded ruthlessly. Lisa

A few years back I was being very anal retentive and felt I needed to have as much environmental control as possible to cure my garlic. It was very hot and humid out, and my garage was just way too hot, and NO air circulation. aside: Previous owner had it built. It's a heavily re-inforced 24x32 pole barn structure with an 8" concrete floor. 2 individual insulated garage doors, and a heavy duty man-door. More outlets and lights than you can use, and heavy duty garage door openers. What's missing, WINDOWS!! I painted some on the inside and hung cloth, like curtains. I told my wife it's to remind me to put in windows, if not soon, whenever we need to re-side it. Back on track. So, I figured, the basement. It runs 70-75 in the summer, I can somewhat control humidity with the de-humidifier. So up it went. I hung copper pipe from the floor joists, and hung over 100 bundles of garlic, 10 to a bundle. I turned on the oscillating fan, opened the window and set the dehumidifier. The we left for the weekend. Came back Sunday to this faint smell of garlic in the back yard. Found out it was wafting from the window. I like my garlic, but the house wreaked. My wife and daughter went to a hotel, I was left home to move all the garlic and air out the house!! A few weeks later I made a dozen or so braids, and hung them in the kitchen to finish curing in a hanging position. After a few days they too ended up in the garage. Now, I hang them in the garage, leave a door open and run a fan on them. I also have some old wire racks I got from a grocery store where I can lay things out if needed.

I slice very thing ginger and put it in a jar with a little sugar and sherry wine. It also keeps very well in that too. For the most flavor and aroma, a dehydrator cannot be beat when it comes to fast drying. Always be sure that the item is also totally dry before its stored. If it has residual traces of moisture, it can cause mold to grow, even if its in an air tight container. Chives are actually better tasting if they are freeze dried, but we haven't that technology at home.

They don't last very long no matter what you do.You can try keeping them dry and around 70 degrees is my guess. They will die evenually from the dry. There are some palm seeds that will take a year or two to germinate but these are not one of them.