Allium 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Thanks Marc,

You're really an onion-God   

Actually, for the 2010 allium summer season, I am the self-declared "onion avenger"

[WimB]

Thanks Marc,

You're really an onion-God   

Actually, for the 2010 allium summer season, I am the self-declared "onion avenger"

They need to be avenged  ... I didn't do anything 

[TheOnionMan]

Thanks Marc,

You're really an onion-God   

Actually, for the 2010 allium summer season, I am the self-declared "onion avenger"

They need to be avenged  ... I didn't do anything 

My moniker doesn't necessarily need to make sense, it just is 

[TheOnionMan]

Having too much fun on the forum today, must go outside and actually do some gardening in the heat.  This little allium is flowering at the moment.

Allium parciflorum - from 1993 AGS seedlist.  A very small slender plant, thus difficult to photograph.  Over the years, it will slowly colonize a small area and send up a thicket of wiry stems reaching 10-12" (25-30 cm) topped with small few-flowered sprays of tiny pinkish funnels.  Not showy, but cute and reliable, useful for its mid July flowering.  After flowering it dries up and goes dormant, then in the fall it resprouts with hair-thin silvery leaves that remain evergreen through winter.  From Corsica and Sardinia, it is surprising that it is so hardy.

1-2  old photos from 2001 (not very good quality) showing this species in bud, then in flower.

3     same colony in 2010, in bud, with an invading pale-flowered dwarf A. schoenoprasum just behind.

4     flower detail - tiny pinkish tubular flowers.

5     flowering plants with bulbs

[Graham Catlow]

Hi
Allium cyaneum flowering now.

Graham

[TheOnionMan]

Hi
Allium cyaneum flowering now.

Graham

Sorry Graham, but it's another nice Allium sikkimense, but since A. sikkimense is typically the hardy one to get true-to-name, you're one up on the deal.  I used to grow about 10 different forms of Allium cyaneum, but down to just one these days.  In Allium cyaneum, the stamens are about twice as long as the tepals, sometimes a little shorter but always well exserted.

Most of my photos were slides, and the scans look terrible, so I include only one.  Also included is a line drawing I made of Allium cyaneum. Then, I provide links to teh NARGS Photo Library showing A. cyaneum, and a couple more photo links.

NARGS Photo Gallery: Allium cyaneum
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/show_image.php%3Fid%3D72%26scalesize%3D0%26nocount%3Dy&imgrefurl=http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php%3FimageId%3D72&usg=__r3ZxzB2zB0R6-9X_ojzKLyzEP8A=&h=641&w=530&sz=78&hl=en&start=6&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Ibjg9Ra2_-cpHM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dallium%2Bcyaneum%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

short URL: http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/show_image.php?id=72&scalesize=0&nocount=y

NARGS Photo Gallery: Allium cyaneum closeup
http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?galleryId=7&sort_mode=name_asc&imageId=297&scalesize=0
short url: http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/show_image.php?id=297&scalesize=o

more photo links:
http://www.thyboesmindestauder.dk/alfabet_staudeliste/abc/Allium%20cyaneum14.jpg
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2008/08/08/plantaholic186/f3ca26.jpg

[Graham Catlow]

Hi
Allium cyaneum flowering now.

Graham

Sorry Graham, but it's another nice Allium sikkimense,

Thanks Mark.

Oh well! I'll just have to change the name. It's blue and it's nice. Which were the two reasons I bought it
I can see the difference from the links you posted. I just have to trust the nurseries that I buy my plants from until someone like you informs me otherwise.

Graham

[arisaema]

but since A. sikkimense is typically the hardy one to get true-to-name, you're one up on the deal.

Count me in as the third person who grows mislabelled A. sikkimense, one received as A. beesianum and the other as A. cyaneum

The striped pink is the one mentioned earlier in the thread, the colour is a bit off as my camera doesn't like cloudy weather - and the plant itself is getting overgrown by a huge Aster. Here's Magnar's picture of it. Thanks for taking a go at it, it's been passed around quite a lot here in Norway, so it would be nice to finally be able to put a name to it!

[WimB]

but since A. sikkimense is typically the hardy one to get true-to-name, you're one up on the deal.

Count me in as the third person who grows mislabelled A. sikkimense, one received as A. beesianum and the other as A. cyaneum

Actually, I think I've never seen the real A. cyaneum then. It would seem it's not as easy to find in Europe!

[Ray]

Some years ago I bought Allium siculum var bulgaricum,some time down the track it became Nectaroscordum siculum.Always when it flowered the flower stem was bent.have now been told by a nursery person that this was caused by the bulbs being virused,is this correct bye Ray

[Graham Catlow]

Hi
Allium cyaneum flowering now.

Graham

Sorry Graham, but it's another nice Allium sikkimense,

Thanks Mark.

Oh well! I'll just have to change the name. It's blue and it's nice. Which were the two reasons I bought it
I can see the difference from the links you posted. I just have to trust the nurseries that I buy my plants from until someone like you informs me otherwise.

Graham

I have just checked the web-site of the nursery I bought it from and they still have it for sale as A. cyaneum with a photo almost identical to mine. Allium aren't one of the nurseries specialist areas so I suspect they are unaware of the mis-naming.

Graham

[David Nicholson]

McMark, there can't be many people out there with as much detailed knowledge of Allium as you have. If I were a Publisher (and I'm not!) I would be beating a path to your door with a view to your producing a much needed monograph.

[TheOnionMan]

but since A. sikkimense is typically the hardy one to get true-to-name, you're one up on the deal.

Count me in as the third person who grows mislabelled A. sikkimense, one received as A. beesianum and the other as A. cyaneum

Actually, I think I've never seen the real A. cyaneum then. It would seem it's not as easy to find in Europe!

Wim, Graham, and Arisaema - I'm surprised to find out that it's hard to find true Allium cyaneum in Europe. Somewhere, somehow, the misidentified plants have made their way into nurseries, which as we know accelerates the problem   Funny thing though, most often the usurping misidentified Alliums are common things like A. cernuum and A. cyathophorum var. farreri.  In North America I have not experienced much confusion with A. cyaneum, might be worth trying from NARGS Seedex or other seed sources.

There are only a handful of blue Chinese Allium species, only three common to horticulture, all easily separated.  Here's a good general rule of thumb or mini key:

A.  Stamens well exserted................ 1. Allium cyaneum
     Stamens not exserted................. B

B   Tepals   6-10 mm......................  2. Allium sikkimense
     Tepals 11-14 (17) mm...............  3. Allium beesianum

Of course, there are other differing characteristics, and other blue species, but this is a tried and true method of separate these 3 often-confused species.  All are choice slow growers for a good rich well-drained position in the partly shaded rock garden or trough.

I notice the FOC has been adding some photos of plants in the wild, welcome additions.  Here are 4 links to Allium sikkimense photos in FOC of plants in the wild.
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87660&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87661&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87662&flora_id=800
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=87663&flora_id=800

[TheOnionMan]

Some years ago I bought Allium siculum var bulgaricum,some time down the track it became Nectaroscordum siculum.Always when it flowered the flower stem was bent.have now been told by a nursery person that this was caused by the bulbs being virused,is this correct bye Ray

Ray, I grow Nectaroscordum siculum, bulbs purchased from local nursery centers that sell imported Dutch bulbs, and have not noticed any virus problems.  I have experienced the situation where some stems bend and twist, or partially recline, and don't stand up as straight as they might, but never thought of that being virus-induced.  I just thought it was the way the plant grew, but maybe the nurseryman is correct... I don't have enough experience with this. Mine are increasing and put on a good show this year, although I did get a number of semi-decumbent stems, which in the end turn upright and seem to flower okay, but I attributed the less-than-erect stems to the fact my plants are now getting some shade, and this is a sun loving plant.

[TheOnionMan]

McMark, there can't be many people out there with as much detailed knowledge of Allium as you have. If I were a Publisher (and I'm not!) I would be beating a path to your door with a view to your producing a much needed monograph.

Thanks David.  Actually, I was approached a couple times by publishers to write a book.  The last time, I set forth a list of items they'd need to agree to, such as *no (culinary) recipes* to be included... so what if a botanical genus contains edible plants, does that fact require inclusion of recipes?  Other prerequisites were agreed to, such as significant coverage on hybrids, highlighted variation of selected species, using Alliums as landscape plants, etc.  The problem was too short a time frame to write a book, and insufficient time the following growing season with which to take photos, and as I was working ridiculous hours (all for nothing it seems), I had to turn the request down.

I don't think any future book could be a true monograph, it is simply too huge a task, and there are botanists/taxonomists who are light-years more experienced than myself.  I'm in awe of works such as Brian Mathew's "A Review of Allium Section Allium", an exemplary treatise on this one section of Allium if ever there was one.  I could not begin to write something as well articulated, researched and scientifically accurate as Mr. Mathew's important work.  If I eventually do write something, it will be a potpourri exercise in alliaceous self-indulgence.

And now for something completely different, I was cleaning up old papers and stacks of stuff in my home office, and came across a newspaper article from 1994 in which my oniony interests were featured, in The Boston Globe newspaper.  I uploaded the black and white photo from that article... hard to believe I had as much hair 16 years ago, and it was dark and not white!  The photo is not trick photography, but a clever trompe-l'œil by the staff photograph.  He was a distance back higher up on my hilly yard using a telephoto lens, and I'm kneeling down next to a bed of Allium 'Globe Master'... makes the Allium heads appear to be 7' (2+ meters) tall.