| Where
the garden meets the wild
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ALLIUM ORNAMENTAL ONION Liliaceae (Lily family) / Alliaceae (Allium family) |
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| SPECIES A - H SPECIES I - Z Return to Plants Index Bulbs Index | ||
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| Allium guttatum subsp. sardoum. Photograph © Paige Woodward | ||
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Alliums
are tough, versatile, easy to grow ~ just plant them and retire to
your hammock ~ and did we mention beautiful? The florets at left
belong to one of the plainer members of the genus, Allium
cernuum.
Alliums shine in rock gardens, borders and troughs. Their oniony nature makes them unappetizing to many garden pests, including deer. All parts of the plant are edible: sprinkle the leaves in salads, slice and sauté the bulb, grind the seeds in a peppermill, use the flowers as a garnish. In rainy areas, dryland alliums' roots need all the air they can get; make their bed porous and fast-draining by mixing in coarse sand, gravel, perlite or pumice. Most alliums are very hardy. If a zone isn't mentioned, you may assume at least Zone 6. |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Allium
acuminatum Hook. Hooker's onion; Tapertip onion. Asterisks
of rose-pink florets dance on 15-cm (6") stems in June-July
as the basal leaves wither.
Strongly prefers dry, sunny sites. Ideal for rock gardens. Native to W North America. Our
plants are from seeds collected on Denman Island, off SW British Columbia.
Zone 6. Bulb (Fall shipping only). $3.00 |
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| Allium amabile. See Allium mairei. | ||
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Allium amphibolum Ledebour.
直立韭
Zhi li jiu (Chinese).
Densely packed domes of lilac florets bloom in June-July
above linear, somewhat leathery leaves. The flower is 3-4 cm (1.5")
wide; each floret, about 1 cm (1/2") across, has a purple-red midvein
and grey-blue anthers with red filaments. Native to W Xinjiang in China, and to
Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. Our bulbs are from exchange seeds. Do
admit this is a gorgeous creature. Height
25-35 cm (10-14"). Zone 5, perhaps colder.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $8.50 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph by Brother Alfred Brousseau © St. Mary's College of California |
Allium amplectens Torrey.
Open umbels of peach, rose or white florets bloom in May on 15 -30 cm
(6-12") stems. Native to summer-dry sites from California north to
Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Shines in gardens with a
Mediterranean climate; elsewhere, shines under glass. Our plants descend from several wild
populations. Zone 6.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $6.00 |
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Photograph by Brother Alfred Brousseau © St. Mary's College of California |
Allium
bisceptrum S. Watson. An
umbel of many pink florets dances in spring
atop
a rounded stem with 2-3 leaves. Stem rounded, 10-15 cm tall bearing
fairly dense many-flowered umbel. Flowers pink.
Our bulbs descend from a population in Lyon Co., Nevada. These
are naturally small bulbs. Must be dry during dormancy. Height
10-15 cm (4-6"). Not available this season. |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Allium caesium
Schrenk. 知母薤
Zhi mu xie (Chinese). A sky-blue cooler for fried sensibilities in the heat of
July-August. The dense heads are 6 cm (2.5") across; the color of the
florets is intensified by grey-blue midribs. Blooms later and longer
than Allium caeruleum, which it somewhat resembles. Native from Siberia to the Tien
Shan mountains of central Asia. Our plants descend from bulbs collected
on steppe near Dshambul, Kazakhstan, in 1984. Height 50-70 cm (20-28"). Bulb (Fall shipping only). $11.00 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Allium cernuum
Roth.
Nodding onion. Umbels of clear pink flowers nod from June to August
on stems bent like shepherd's crooks; a few heads bloom as late as
November with us, poking up through piles of fallen leaves. Native to much of N America.
Vigorous; tolerates many soils and climates. Our plants descend from seeds collected in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.
Height to 50 cm (20"). Zone 4. Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society).
Bulbs (Fall shipping only). 3/$1.50 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Allium cyathophorum
Bur. & Franch. var.
farreri (Stearn) Stearn. 川甘韭
chuan gan jiu (Chinese). This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6. (Chinese). This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6. (Chinese). This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6. (Chinese). This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6. (Chinese). This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6. This reliable and good-looking
rock-garden and border plant becomes a small fountain of
long-lasting, reddish-purple flowers in June-July. Native to Gansu province, China. Our
plants are from garden seed. Height 15 cm (6"). Zone 6.
Bulbs (Fall shipping only). 3/$3.00 |
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Photograph © Mark McDonough |
Allium darwasicum Regel.
White flowers, refreshingly tinged with green, bloom in dense, 4-cm (1.5")
globes that are lightly scented, some say
like Gardenia, others Syringa (Lilac).
The cup-shaped florets face upward. Native to central Asia. Our plants
descend from seed collected in Tajikistan. Lift the
bulbs before the leaves completely die down; they will rot in moist soil
during dormancy. Height 30-40 cm (12-16"). Zone 5.
Not available this season. |
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Scanned image © Paige Woodward
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Allium douglasii
Hooker.
This treasure is native to the higher, drier parts of E Washington
and Oregon. Our plants descend from material collected from a large and
gorgeous population in the Blue Mountains of Oregon on a hike
with Ron Ratko. The species is variable; our plants are consistent in
their appearance. The flowers are mauve-tinged pink, with blue-grey
anthers protruding. They rise in June-July on a gracefully curved, rigid
stem about 40 cm (15") tall. Below it two thick blue-green leaves, 2
cm (1") wide, flop in a voluptuous tangle. This is a dryland plant;
in the wild, it grows in clay where what little rain there is falls in
early spring. If you get lots of rain, especially rain in summer, grow
this bulb in very porous, well aerated soil, or protect it under glass.
Zone 6, possibly colder.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $6.00 |
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| Allium flavum
Linnaeus subsp. tauricum (Besser ex Rchb.) Stearn McDonough
selections. This species grows wild from Greece and Central
Europe to W Asia. The three ravishing selections we offer below were bred by
our friend Mark McDonough, the
Allium Man. They retain the powdery, blue, swirling foliage of the
species, but they flower in rich colors far beyond the typical
chalk-yellow. They are drought-tolerant, they bloom in July-August
and they make offsets quickly. Height to 25 cm (10"). Zone 6,
probably colder.
For more on these selections and a lot of other interesting plants, visit Mark McDonough's website, www.plantbuzz.com. |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Allium flavum
subsp. tauricum 'Cantaloupe'. Selected by Mark McDonough.
Please see notes above.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $3.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Allium flavum
subsp. tauricum 'Cinnamon'. Selected by Mark McDonough.
Please see notes above.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $3.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Allium flavum
subsp. tauricum 'Lemon Cooler'. Selected by Mark McDonough.
Please see notes above.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $3.00 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Allium geyeri
S. Wats. var. tenerum M.E. Jones. Open umbels of white to pale
pink, 2 cm (1") across, bloom from May on. Many of the florets
are replaced by bulbils. Height 15 cm (6"). Likes damp, rocky meadows and slopes. Native to W
North America, except California. Red-listed in British Columbia, rare in
Alberta; quite common in the rest of its range. Our plants descend from bulbils collected in
1999 in the Botanie Valley near Lytton, B.C., with permission of the Nlaka'pamux
Nation.
Not available this season. |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Allium guttatum
Steven
subsp. dalmaticum (A. Kern. ex Janchen) Stearn. This is
very like Allium
guttatum subsp. sardoum (see below), but the flowers are intensely,
gloriously purple. Our plants descend from material collected by
Antoine Hoog in mixed deciduous woods above Petrovac, Montenegro (then
part of Yugoslavia), in 1991.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $6.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Allium guttatum
Steven
subsp. sardoum (Moris) Stearn. Tall,
milk-white and
frothy, with 4-cm (1.5") heads and thread-like leaves: how beautiful these would be in your
garden, dancing in the midsummer breeze! Bees adore them, as you can see.
Also attractive, the narrow leaves twist into green corkscrews (click on
our second picture) before the
flowers bloom. Our plants
descend from wild material collected in Ioannina province, northern Greece,
in 1987. Height 50-70 cm
(20-27"). Full sun.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $6.00 |
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Photograph © Charles Webber
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Allium hyalinum Curran. Glassy
onion. Clusters of wide-open, starry flowers, palest pink to white, bloom in
spring, becoming
translucent (hyaline) as they go to seed. There are usually 2 linear
leaves. Native to California meadows and
rocky places, this is a vernal-pool species, a plant adapted to sites that
are wet in winter and spring, then dry out. Water sparingly if at all,
therefore, once bloom is over, and grow this under glass unless your
climate matches its demands. Though described in floras as up to 35 cm (14")
tall, our bulbs, which descend from Tulare Co. seed, have never exceeded
15 cm (6"). The bulbs are naturally small. Zone 6-7. Read more about California's vernal pools here.
Not available this season. |
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| Continue to ALLIUM SPECIES I - Z | ||
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| This page was updated March 19, 2008. | ||
