Garlic flowers are placed in Lucy Westenra’s room to protect her in Dracula.
Professor Abraham Van Helsing recognizes that Lucy’s mysterious illness has a supernatural cause and surrounds her room with garlic flowers. In Stoker’s novel, garlic is treated as a protection against vampiric influence, although Lucy’s mother removes the flowers without understanding their importance.
That mistake leaves Lucy vulnerable. Dracula continues attacking her, while the doctors interpret her worsening condition chiefly as severe blood loss. Lucy receives transfusions, but the medical treatment cannot solve the supernatural threat. After her death, she returns as the “Bloofer Lady,” a vampire who preys on children.
The detail is sometimes remembered simply as “garlic,” while the novel specifically describes garlic flowers placed around Lucy. It is also easy to confuse this scene with later vampire fiction, which often adds rules about crosses, sunlight, or wooden stakes. Stoker’s garlic is one part of a broader protective system that also includes religious objects and ritual authority.