Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Funions

Alliums are such fun flowers. I hereby resolve to plant more of them.

You're familiar with chive flowers, of course:
They make a great garnish.

The larger decorative alliums make lovely fireworks bursts of white or purple in your garden.
And even after they go to seed they have an interesting shape.
A couple of years ago I planted seeds for bunching onions, which I got from Kenny at Veggie Gardening Tips. They didn't sprout until this year! But now that they're established, I expect them to stick around.
I originally thought they were Egyptian walking onions, which grow their bulbs on the top. The weight bends the stems over until the bulbs hit the ground and take root, hence the "walking."

If the bunching onions were just for kitchen use, I would mound the dirt up so the stems are blanched. But I enjoy them as much for their looks as for cooking.

4 comments:

  1. So right. I love the huge silver-purple A christophii (may have a new name by now) and many more.

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  2. Do alliums need sun? Are those snow poppies next to the allium that has gone to seed?

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  3. I just ordered more alliums from Brent and Becky's Bulbs! A few years ago Bob N. gave me some very cool little rock garden onions with yellow and pink and peach colored flowers. I keep hoping they'll spread faster so I can share them, too.
    Diana

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  4. Bklyn, I'm ordering more for sure. I'll look for that one.

    Peggy, they seem to like the sun but certainly tolerate some shade. Those are poppies, but I don't know what kind. Just big pink ones.

    Diana, Bob was recommending B&B's to me, too. He gave us some goodies in exchange for our misorder from High Country Gardens.

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