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I was wondering if someone could help me identify this allium. I purchased it as A. stracheyi but I don't think it is. I know if you look at various sites selling it they have a plant that looks like mine. But I have a copy of the book Allium and Milula in the central and eastern Himalaya by William T Stearm and it describes A. stracheyi as follows ' Tepals purple, pink or reddish with a deeper red mid nerve: Leaves not more than 3mm broad' so it can't be that! It looks a bit like A. obliquum but isn't. It has a different leaf shape, narrower and fatter and only sheaths the lower 8th. It flowers later than A. oliquum and the tepals are more open. I did consider A.hookeri car muliense but again the leaf isn't right. Anybody got any other ideas?
From your picture of A. hookeri var muliense it is not that. There is no pink on any of the flowers but do you think it might be A. stracheyi after all?Thanks again for all your help.Jackie
That one looks right John. It's sort of fun to learn of one's hybrids becoming so broadly distributed, to the point they're offered for sale at grocery chains, Millenium has become a household commodity.
Quote from: TheOnionMan on July 10, 2015, 09:16:50 PM Wim, I can't find much at all, on an Allium named 'Valerie Finnis', of course we all know the famous Muscari cultivar by that name, and apparently there's an Artemisia cultivar by that name too. What can you tell us about that Allium. Looks like one of a number of pale red & white forms of Allium paniculatum.
Actually McMark, I have no idea, I received it as a gift from a friendly nursery-woman 5 years ago, she lost hers in the same year and 2 years ago I gave her back a big clump, now she's selling it at her nursery. I'll ask her, the only thing I remember is that she bought it on one of her travels in England.
To my eye, A. 'Valerie Finnis' is superficially similar to this plant shown at the AGS Pershore show: https://lawrencepeetalpines.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/image67.jpg
Indeed it is, Matt - well spotted! That plant has a label saying Allium serra - though none of the pix I've seen of that have the pendant flowers of that plant or of the 'Valerie Finnis' - the plot thickens! Roland has shown a similar plant, which he obtained as A. Serra, pix here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=6685.msg209552#msg209552 but which Mark McDonough identified as a low-growing form of Allium paniculatum. In subsequent posts to the one shown above, McMark gives various links to show the photos of true A. serra Seems there may be more than one supplier calling this plant, in error, A. serra!
In a 2002 bulletin of the AGS, issue 290/No70, page 416, Allium 'Valerie Finnis' is described just with that name (no species mentioned) as being "about 10cm or a little more" and having "pendant flowers with a very difficult-to-describe colour combination. The petals are partly a muted pale reddish-brown and partly cream. This sounds dull, but is, in fact quietly attractive."
This is a long story- so I've added all the relevant quotes! This is the plant, pictured by Wim B. in 2014 (Attachment Link) I wrote to Vic Aspland, who had made that note in the AGS bulletin to see what he might recall of the provenance of the plant . Here is his reply: "Hello Maggi,Many apologies for the delay in responding to your email.Like you, I searched all over the place for info on this plant.I eventually discovered that it is a selection of Allium pallens.Who told me this, I cannot remember, but I subsequently raised A. pallens from seed for comparison and, to be perfectly frank, could not see any difference between the two.One usually expects a named form to be superior in some way, but this appears not to be the case on this occasion. Both plants seem to be particularly vulnerable to high rainfall during summer; I have been reduced to just a few bulbs in a wet summer. Good drainage seems to be essential.Kind regards, Vic "An excellent result in getting this information, I think - thanks to Vic.
