Allium 2013

[Mark Griffiths]

I got this as Allium cyaneum from AGS seed. From reading postings here I'm assuming it's actually A. sikkimense?

I'm not hugely disappointed - actually to be frank I was quite pleased it was a small blue allium rather than some noxious weed.

 

[johnralphcarpenter]

Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii, a British native.

[Stephenb]

Great pictures everyone!

Here's a few Alliums at Wisley gardens taken on 28th June

Edit : names added to allow search engine to find the photos.Names in the file names

    Allium dichlamydeum P6281862
    Allium dichlamydeum P6281865
    Allium umbilicatum P6281894
    Allium umbilicatum P6281895
    Allium acuminatum P6281854

[Stephenb]

Second batch

The first two are clearly wrongly labelled, the second being, no surprises, Allium cyathophorum farreri (the great impostor) which I saw elsewhere wrongly identified.

    Allium beesianum no P6281777
    Allium caesium P6281760
    Allium cristophii P6281690
    Allium gomphrenoides P6281851

[Stephenb]

...and the last few..

Don't know what the first two are...anyone?

Is unifolium correct?

[Rimmer de Vries]

Allium ovalifolium as once offered by Chen Yi as  S-189 (but no white striped leaves).

[TheOnionMan]

So many alliums posted, I'll have to catch up and comment on some previous messages.

Stephen, wonderful seeing A. umbilicatum and gomphrenoides, they look correct.  I tried getting gomphenoides a number of times but you know the story with Alliums, so many are misnamed.  I like the shuttlecock shape to the bloom heads on gomphrenoides.  LOL on "beesianum" and "caesium" 

Rimmer, very cool A. ovalifolium, I have studied your photos with considerable interest.  My Allium listera looks rather similar; it came as an Allium sp collected by Darrell Probst in China, I will show photos of 2 clones. What separates Allium ovalifolium and A. listera, is that A. listera is supposed to have more pronounced petioles to the leaf bases, versus being just a pronounced narrowing, and the base of the leaves in listera have lobes that exceed the petiole connection (slightly cordate).  Most important, in Allium listera, the outer perianth segments are much narrower than inner ones, but in ovalifolium the inner and outer segments are more or less equal.  Otherwise, they are very similar.  The form of ovalifolium with white veins is recognized as var. leuconeurum.

Most photos I've seen of Allium ovalifolium tend to have more open heads with fewer florets, but I'm not sure if that's diagnostic.  My Allium listera plants have that same lovely pink color to the pedicels, giving the flower heads a heart of pink, which is charming, your ovalifolium has that coloration.  I also notice the translucent golden color on one of the flower buds in your photo, my listera have that same look.  I do wonder if these two "species" are really just one and the botanists have split them based on some fairly subtle and variable characteristics.

Do yours set seed?  Mine do, but in all the years I've sown them in an attempt to increase my stock, only had 1 seed germinate, which didn't grown one past the first year, not sure why it's so dang difficult to germinate.  Got seed 2 years ago of Allium ovalifolium from Lori Skukski, they germinated well and are surviving, looking forward to comparing them.

Here are a bunch of views of the smaller of the two clones of A. listera.  The much larger clone is still in bud, justing starting to open now, always flowers a couple weeks later on taller stems and bigger bloom heads.

[wmel]

...and the last few..
Don't know what the first two are...anyone?
Is unifolium correct?

allium unifolium looks correct and the first two look like allium amplectens. Do they have small red bulbs about size 4 - 6 ?

[TheOnionMan]

Stephen, I agree with Wietse, the first two photos looks like Allium amplectans, in fact, looks just like a form I have spreading around in the garden here.

[TheOnionMan]

Weitse, I must say that you're showing us some remarkable Alliums, so many rare ones, I do hope you'll work your magic in your onion fields to increase their stock and make them more available in cultivation, so many rarities that one rarely even sees photos of, such as hirtovaginum, balansae, luteolum and others. 

Did you acquire A. gypsaceum from Janis Ruksans? It's a spectacular little allium, what a color! And good luck with your newly acquired A. chrysantherum, another rare one.

Pauli, I have had similar experience with Allium caeruleum from purchased bulbs, mostly grassy leaves and few flowers, and if a bulb does produce flowers, the next year it will only produce leaves. Perhaps the form in cultivation and mass produced for many decades, is not the best or free-flowering form of the species.

Maggi, I'm suspicious of your racing-onion photo, those racer's look like they've been cloned, the photo most likely produced with the new Allium Composer app for the Android 

Oleg, the seed you generously sent me of Allium pseudoflavum 3 years ago, has produced some flowering size bulbs this year.  It really is a subtle beauty, I'm so glad to finally have this one.  Photos from last week.

[wmel]

Mark, thanks for the appreciation of all the pictures I post.
I have no intention to brag about my collection, but it's always nice that there are people who like it too.
How are the seeds that I sent last year and is the catalog of our company also arrived last year?
Many alliums we really only have 1 or 2 Bulbs and there are many species that just do not want to grow, whatever I try!
so also allium ovalifolium, that does not want to grow here
2 years ago I got Allium canadense, see attached pictures. Is this Allium canadense?, It gives only bulbs instead of flowers.
allium gypsaceum came from Janis Ruksans, but even now I have bought some more bulbs, I still dont get seeds from this beauty

[wmel]

some more beautys flowering today:

allium brevicaule
allium brevicaule "Dark"
allium kakacae
allium macranthum "White" (found 2 years ago)
allium pseudoampeloprasum

[wmel]

and the last from today:

allium pseudoflavum ( yes I have that one to, only one plant , but it looks like it will multiply)
allium regelianum
allium sanbornii conqdonii
allium staticiforme
allium tuncelianum

[TheOnionMan]

Hello Wietse,
You post so many wonderful alliums. I believe I posted a photo of Allium tuncelianum and macranthum germinating well from your seed, hopefully my memory serves me well, which it doesn't always do.  Asking me about the catalog you sent me, I'm embarrassed to admit that yes indeed, I did receive it, but realization that I probably did not acknowledge it, I apologize for that.  It arrived during my previous job that I had for almost 2 years, and it was a horrible and ridiculously demanding job... a job that followed my 17 months of devastating unemployment, I worked most weekends and many evenings, and I fell terribly behind in everything, including all correspondence, and my Allium garden garden, which basically went without proper weeding for 2 years while I was stuck in this terrible job.  My garden suffered, and I've lost parts of the garden to aggressive weeds, and lost many alliums which can't compete with big weeds, which has been rather depressing.  I'm now in a much better job (although, it is very demanding as well).  Your catalog is splendid, and I really appreciate receiving it.

Back to plants, another rarity that one almost never sees is Allium brevicaule, and my goodness you've done so well with it.  Your portrait photo of Allium pseudoflavum looks great, lots more florets than in my first-flowering 3-year plants. The pure white macranthum is beautiful, as is staticiforme.  Did the white macranthum show up in your nursery beds?  It's a winner!  Never seen pseudoampeloprasum before, very densely budded, I assume it's a tall plant.  Please show us Allium regelianum again when the flowers open, there are almost no photos of this species on the internet.

As to Allium canadense, there are many forms, but the typical A. canadense var. canadense is one to avoid, the flowers mostly or entirely replaced by bulbils, and it can be invasive.  The floriferous forms are much better.  I have never met a totally bulbiliferous form, I had a couple forms that were mostly bulbiliferous with red bulbils and white florets, which I kind of liked, but have since lost them.  I also grew for a number of years an undescribed totally floriferous form of the straight species found by Thad Howard in Texas among myriad typically bulbiliferous canadense, that had a big showy head of white flowers, sadly I think I have now lost this.  He had proposed publishing it as "f. florosum", but not sure he ever published it in the waning years of his life.

As to the highly desirable Allium karacae from Turkey, I'm afraid what you show is not correctly identified.  This is a species with whitish to violet-blue flowers, I have been looking for this one for a while once I learned of its existence.  Here are some links:

Allium karacae, in Cytotaxonomic studies on four Allium L. (Alliaceae) species endemic to Turkey, 2002, link to the "Abstract", there is a link to the full text (A. goekyigitii, vuralii, scabriscapum, and karacae):
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00087114.2002.10589274#preview
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00087114.2002.10589274

Allium karacae: "It has no close relatives, and is very distinct for its dense umbel, violet-blue flowers, simple filaments and reticulate-fibrous tunics"

http://rareplants.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=138&P_ID=2589

RarePlants has the best image of a flower head:
http://rareplants.co.uk/uploads/images_versions_large/3451.jpg

[Maggi Young]

Dear Wietse,
 How may we buy Allium  from you?