Allium 2010

[Stephenb]

No, Stephen. It is most certainly not a calcifuge!!!  In *very* alkaline Ontario, it covered miles of woodland where it was happy. Here in very acid Nova Scotia it is almost non-existant. Dry, deciduous, alkaline woodlands is the preferred habitat in the wild.

Thanks - that's that theory out of the window....my garden is dry, deciduous, alkaline...

I have a standing order for 2km of seed to be custom collected for a large European seedhouse for this season---so hopefully it will make it's way into the nursery trade across the ocean soon.

2km of seed is an interesting concept - that would be about 500,000 seed (estimated 2mm diameter seed), sounds as though Europe will be awash with Allium tricoccum - hope so!

It remains, from year to year, my best selling allium species, which I suppose attests to the many chefs among my clients.

Another theory would be that everyone is having the same problem as me - seeds germinating, but soon self-destructing and hence back to Kristl for a new attempt, increasing sales...(or,  as you say, Chefs harvesting the plants...)

[Afloden]

Here is my favorite among the North American Allium in flower again. It has done well in the past year. It must not need the summer dryness that it gets in central Kansas.

 Allium perdulce - very sweetly Dianthus like scent that pours out into the air! I found this population in the wild by its scent one spring in a vernally flooded field. There was a large population growing in heavy black clay soil with ca. 2 cm of water standing on the surface and the wind was blowing my way with the fragrance in the air. I have another collection from the Dakota sands of Kansas that is a far worse grower and is not flowering this year (nor last year).

 Aaron

[TheOnionMan]

Puzzle: What is this thing?

[johnw]

Puzzle: What is this thing?

An onion ring?

johnw

[TheOnionMan]

Puzzle: What is this thing?

An onion ring?

johnw

Exactly!  Some Allium species are turf-forming and tend to move out from the center over time.  The plant shown here is an A. nutans hybrid. Many of the nutans types do this, leaving voids in the center as the plants age.  It is an undesirable trait in a hybridization effort, and I select nutans/senescens hybrids that remain in better clumps.  I've kept this one as I find it amusing.  It is rather large in diameter now, and I can't fit it into the deep fryer

[Armin]

Mark,
an interesting feature. I know "fairy rings" only from some kind of mushrooms

[TheOnionMan]

Mark,
an interesting feature. I know "fairy rings" only from some kind of mushrooms

Here is another "fairy ring"... a "dancing fairy ring" of the oniony kind

In the second photo, one hardly realizes the center is open, as the broad spiralling foliage fills in.

[Armin]

Mark,
the foliage is very attractive of this allium nutans. What height does it grow ?

[TheOnionMan]

Mark,
the foliage is very attractive of this allium nutans. What height does it grow ?

Foliage to about 12" (30 cm) and stems 18-24" (45-60 cm).  It's a "beefy" plant.
It is the widest leaf form I have, a good parent for hybridization efforts. 

Sorry about the poor quality photo (the digital camera I used back in the early 2000s was not very good), but the scene does capture the winged scapes and nodding buds that twist and coil in amusing ways.

[Lesley Cox]

The foliage is really excellent and the flowers look good too but on the whole I like my onion rings crisply fried.

[Anthony Darby]

The foliage is really excellent and the flowers look good too but on the whole I like my onion rings crisply fried.

............in batter!

Actually, these plants are really neat, and I like the way they form a ring. Are they like the true fairy rings, which get wider in diameter each year so you can more or less tell the age of the clone?

[Lesley Cox]

And could you plant something else in the middle or are they a solid mass of bulby material?

[TheOnionMan]

And could you plant something else in the middle or are they a solid mass of bulby material?

Good question Lesley, the bulbs of Allium nutans are attached to well developed sideways growing rhizome (much like a bearded Iris), with 3-5 bulbs attached to that rhizome.  It seems that as the plant grows year to year, the new growth always advances forward and outwards, with the inner part of the rhizome (closest to the center) dying off.  So, the ring gets bigger and bigger.  The center is devoid of any rhizomes, so I suppose one could grow something at the center; I'm thinking of a nice Dionysia or Eritrichium

[Lesley Cox]

Oh yes, that would be very classy, or maybe something with a different but complementary foliage colour. How about one of the new Heucheras? Or something else which would also grow outwards to make a ring so that yet again, something could be planted in the middle? It's all beginning to sound a bit like ring-worm though.

[ranunculus]

Oh yes, that would be very classy, or maybe something with a different but complementary foliage colour. How about one of the new Heucheras? Or something else which would also grow outwards to make a ring so that yet again, something could be planted in the middle? It's all beginning to sound a bit like ring-worm though.

... And set to Wagner, naturally ... with libretto by Tolkein ... and scenery sponsored by the Olympics Committee ... in the Saturn Theatre?
 ... Don't ring us ... we'll ring you!