Hun Ken

'Hun Ken' is a named landrace of fragrant-flowered garlic that entered institutional collections in 1956, when a plant-collecting expedition organised through the German agricultural research institute at Gatersleben gathered it near Qiqihar in far northeastern China, at coordinates recorded as roughly 47°21'N, 124°00'E. It is worth being clear about what it is not: the garlic chive most Western gardeners grow is Allium tuberosum, whereas 'Hun Ken' is Allium ramosum, the fragrant-flowered northern Asian species that has a documented history of both wild gathering and cultivation across its range. Seed reached the North American market through Aaron Parker of Edgewood Nursery in Falmouth, Maine, who describes it flatly as unusual in cultivation here, and from there into the Experimental Farm Network's catalogue. Both the leaves and the flowers are harvested and eaten, which is unusual even among culinary alliums. In its home range the foliage is cut between May and July and packed in salt to keep through winter, then used to season mutton or to fill dumplings, with the late-summer flowers preserved the same way. Gardeners choose it over ordinary garlic chives for the scented blooms, the cold-hardiness, and the traceable collection history.