Allium 2010

[Gunilla]

Yes Mark,  keep on posting  . A. cernuum is one of my favourite alliums.
I grow Allium ursinum in my garden and this year I found a plant with variegated leaves among them.

[TheOnionMan]

Yes Mark,  keep on posting  . A. cernuum is one of my favourite alliums.
I grow Allium ursinum in my garden and this year I found a plant with variegated leaves among them.

Oh my Gunilla, that's a very special well-marked variegation isn't it!   I've never seen such a good variegated form... be sure to take special care of it (keep those slugs away ), and maybe one day get it into horticultural commerce.

[Stephenb]

Magnificent, Gunilla! I would certainly pay a good price for one of them! Never seen anything like it...

[TheOnionMan]

Today I will be showing variant flower forms of Allium cernuum.  There are many subtleties here, but once attuned to them it becomes all the more enjoyable to spot differences, and even select seedling plants for your most favored attributes.

Among the features separating Allium cernuum (nodding onion) from it's close ally A. stellatum (Prairie onion, Autumn onion) is the fact the inflorescence of A. stellatum is nodding only when immature but straightens up at full flowering, and the tepal arrangement in A. stellatum is spreading and starry, the three outer tepals spreading wide, yet the three inner tepals distinctly erect, often recurved and connivent (inrolled), the difference between the inner and outer tepals strongly pronounced. This can be seen clearly in these close-up photos: http://www.missouriplants.com/Pinkalt/Allium_stellatum_page.html

In Allium cernuum, the inflorescence is permanently nodding, and the 6 tepals are all more or less similar and forming a campanulate bell shape. Oh... if it were that easy, even Marion Ownbey, father of American Allium taxonomy, reported that the nodding inflorescence habit is not foolproof, sometimes A. cernuum has stems that become erect or semi-erect, and there are plants that are hard to place.

1-3   Allium cernuum - dimorphic inner/outer tepals (I call these "propeller" types).  The other thing to notice on nodding onion blooms, is the color and thickness of the pedicels, from thick to thin, in colors from gray, green, reddish, gray, to dark charcoal. This one has neat gray-green pedicels.

4     same flower head, side view, just barely nodding, fertilized flowers lifted upright.

5     A. cernuum with 2-tier inflorescence, fertilized flowers lift up yet maintain strongly nodding habit, creates the effect of having a second tier of blooms above the lower tier.

6     showy robust forms with striking architectural candelabra-like arrangement, heads to 4" (10 cm) across, deep rose-purple waxy bells, thick charcoal gray pedicels, flower heads twice the size of most others; with much smaller flower heads of adjacent nodding onion forms seen on the left.

7     closeup of a single deep rose-purple architectural type.

8     very pale pink form, relatively few-flowered, inner tepals fold in giving a semi-stellate look to the openly campanulate florets, fertilized flowers swoop upwards losing any nodding habit, pedicels gray tinged pinkish.

9      nice medium pink, medium-sized heads, gracefully curved pedicels are mid gray and thick, nodding form maintained as a single form without the sometimes two-tier effect seen earlier.

10    handsome light pink form, initial bud arrangement is wide and shallow (see flower head at center), dimophic tepals for a starry-bell shape, fertilized flowers lifting up yet retaining nodding habit, pedicels reddish.

[Graham Catlow]

Hi,
Allium narcissiflorum flowering today.

Mark I hope this is in fact A. narcissiflorum.

Graham

[TheOnionMan]

Hi,
Allium narcissiflorum flowering today.

Mark I hope this is in fact A. narcissiflorum.

Graham

Graham, looks correct to me.

[johnw]

I grow Allium ursinum in my garden and this year I found a plant with variegated leaves among them.

Gunilla  - You will be able to retire at a tender age with that one.

johnw

[Gunilla]

Gunilla  - You will be able to retire at a tender age with that one.
johnw

OK, I will not use those leaves in my salad then    and I have told the slugs to stay away (many times).

[TheOnionMan]

Here's an interesting Allium, one that I received from the AGS seed exchange in 1993 (as bulbils) of "Allium sp. Haute Provins, France".  It ends up being Allium sphaerocephalon var. bulbilliferum.  This form of A. sphaerocephalon is rather different than typical A. sphaerocephalon, being a miniature plant, only about 1/3rd the size of regular A. sphaerocephalon, making a tidy colony of very slender stems 16"-22" (40-55 cm) tall and small heads of dark red-violet flowers.  Even though some of the flower heads are mostly bulbils (rare), the majority of flower heads are floriferous or with just a few little bulbils.  After 17 years, and allowing the bulbils to drop, this species has never spread... the colony has slowly expanded to about 18" x 18" (45 x 45 cm) in all those years.  I do like this slim and trim little plant.

[TheOnionMan]

A comparative view of some Allium cernuum forms.  A few things to notice here.  There is a metal rule on the right hand side, subtract 4" (10 cm) for the bulb portion to get an idea of plant height.  Most forms of Allium cernuum have bright red bulb coats, although they can also be pink or light pink, rarely paler.  Not all A. cernuum forms are created equal, they vary quite a bit.  The tall white one (slightly tinged pink) without a bulb, was too tall for the photo (36", 1 meter) so I removed the bulb.

[PeterT]

I like spaerocephalum growing wild, I plant it in cottage garden borders along with Gladiolus ssp byzantinus where they give some height to the geraniums after the aquliegias

[Maggi Young]

A comparative view of some Allium cernuum forms.  A few things to notice here.  There is a metal rule on the right hand side, subtract 4" (10 cm) for the bulb portion to get an idea of plant height.  Most forms of Allium cernuum have bright red bulb coats, although they can also be pink or light pink, rarely paler.  Not all A. cernuum forms are created equal, they vary quite a bit.  The tall white one (slightly tinged pink) without a bulb, was too tall for the photo (36", 1 meter) so I removed the bulb.

A very useful comparison photo, McMark, thank you. 

[Stephenb]

Today I will be showing variant flower forms of Allium cernuum.  There are many subtleties here, but once attuned to them it becomes all the more enjoyable to spot differences, and even select seedling plants for your most favored attributes.

Finally got round to reading your "everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask" piece on the nodding onion. Fascinating! Will be digging this out again when mine our in flower... This reminded me that I found what I concluded was a form of Allium cernuum in a Norwegian nursery last summer (being sold as Allium insubricum roseum!). The flowers were dimorphic as you describe and particularly attractive I thought  and I wondered if they were something else - must check if it's still alive and I'll post a picture when in flower. My cernuums are now in bud - actually, despite the cold summer they seem to be flowering at the normal time. We finally had 20C yesterday, but it was short-lived as big thunderstorm passed through followed by cooler air...

[TheOnionMan]

This year the Chinese Allium prattii jumped from 2 flowering stems to 6 stems.  This is one I got from Chen Yi (only bought from her once, 7 years ago, everything 100% misidentified), came as A. aciphyllum, but yielded two different Allium species, prattii and ovalifolium. Both species have been very slow growing, and A. prattii has yet to set any seed.  About 8" (20 cm) in flower.

Photos of prattii in bud a week ago, and in full flower this morning.

[olegKon]

Congratulations, Mark. Very nice.
These are Allium atroviolaceum and Allium ramosum