Allium 2012

[wmel]

to begin I wish everyone a very good, happy, healthy and succesfull 2012!!

Here in holland we stil don't have anything that looks like winter.
We only got lots of rain, and high temperature's, and no frost at al.
al this rain is not very good for the bulbs. On some fields there are problems because there is to much water.
because al this warm weather bulbs are comming out very early to! a lot of tulips are already out and also a lot of our alliums are green.
below some photos of very early growing allium seed (Silver Spring).

[John85]

Allium shevockii
This is a very particular allium and I wonder why it isn't more often grown.Is it very difficult?
Are seeds or bulbs available somewhere?

[TheOnionMan]

@Wietse,  I hope your winter stays mild so all those seedlings don't get whacked.  You're getting some incredible germination.

@John
Allium shevockii is exceedingly rare, only found on two mountains in the the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, one population with several thousand plants, the 2nd population with only about 500 plants.  Because it is an endangered plant, it is not likely you'll see it in cultivation anytime soon.   It's a stunning species.

http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=234
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?where-taxon=Allium+shevockii&where-anno=1
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22Allium+shevockii%22

PDF File:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=allium%20shevockii&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blm.gov%2Fpgdata%2Fetc%2Fmedialib%2Fblm%2Fca%2Fpdf%2Fpdfs%2Fcdd_pdfs.Par.000a43e9.File.pdf%2Fspanneed1.PDF&ei=zukMT-WPDOHo0QHohvDXBQ&usg=AFQjCNHd3X44Wx5Ik2_CY1MIyOa8rxCPLQ

[Stephenb]

This onion was collected on a vegetable market in India and I suspected it was Allium chinense (Rakkyo) which is a cultivated species in the Far East, notably Japan when I posted this picture in the Allium 2010 thread:



Here is another accession of Allium chinense from a different source from my garden this summer. I've never flowered these species (they go dormant in summer and would normally flower in winter):

[wmel]

A little winter has arrived here (day +2 oC, night -5 oC)
We protect the seed with straw,
The bulbs can have some frost but if it's getting to cold, we pak them also in straw.

[TheOnionMan]

This onion was collected on a vegetable market in India and I suspected it was Allium chinense (Rakkyo) which is a cultivated species in the Far East, notably Japan when I posted this picture in the Allium 2010 thread:

Here is another accession of Allium chinense from a different source from my garden this summer. I've never flowered these species (they go dormant in summer and would normally flower in winter):

Stephen, I drove by a local Chinese market yesterday but didn't stop for sake of time, but your post is a reminder that I should stop in sometime and see what fresh vegetable "onions" they might have, I'm anxious to get A. chinense.

Wietse, I'm sure your allium seedlings and crops will take a moderate hit of winter, they are rather resilient plants.

[TheOnionMan]

I was on Facebook and found a misidentified photo of Alli um narcissiflorum (no surprise there, it was Alli um cyathophorum var. farreri), but when searching for some good photos of real A. narcissiflorum, I came across some stunning photos taken in Italy.  In particular, photos showing how it grows on mountain sides give clues about how to grow this elegant species.  Scroll down to the bottom for some remarkable red-hued forms.
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/BV.aspx?ref=IE8Activity&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.actaplantarum.org%2Ffloraitaliae%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ft%3D11938
...and another link with excellent photos:
http://www.actaplantarum.org/acta/albums1.php?id=1047


And a couple more photos of plants in mountain habitat:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stationalpinejosephfourier/3777485794/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stationalpinejosephfourier/3776681663/

[wmel]

Last week serious winter and frost was expected. we took our precautions, and now real winter has arrived!!
last week night temperatures until -23 Celcius!!, and the day's maximum is only -3/-5 Celcius.
We were happy for the bulbs we had some 10cm snow for isolation!!
I post some photo's........

[Janis Ruksans]

Almost as in Latvia, only warmer  We had minus 33 C, now temperature raised to "only" minus 17 C
Janis

[John85]

Wietse how are your seedlings after that cold spell?Were the straw and the snow insulating them enough to keep them alive?

[wmel]

Wietse how are your seedlings after that cold spell?Were the straw and the snow insulating them enough to keep them alive?

Snow and frost are gone now, but they left a lot of damage in the Allium.
Under the straw we do not have most damage, but still allium's as Silver Spring, and ampeloprasum type's have a lot of damage.
The 1e year seedling as I posted photo's in the begin of this topic have only a little frost damage.
I think the photo's  I post tell it all.......... We will wait and see.......

[wmel]

Spring arrived here now, al bulbs grow fast, and alliums are recovering from frost very well.
Also a lot of seeds start to germinate now.

[TheOnionMan]

Weitse, impressive to see those long immaculate rows of sprouting Alliums.  Last autumn I never had a chance to clean up my garden, and the Allium garden looks like a shambles right now.  If anyone thinks that Alliums are easy carefree plants, they haven't had the tedious pleasure of cleaning up, particularly with rhizomatous species like A. senescens, where there are a billion dried persistent flower stems that are not easy to pull off.  Your rows of allium are neat and ready to grow, glad the winter cold snap did not produce any serious damage.

[wmel]

Some photo's from today...

[Janis Ruksans]

Wietse how are your seedlings after that cold spell?Were the straw and the snow insulating them enough to keep them alive?

Snow and frost are gone now, but they left a lot of damage in the Allium.
Under the straw we do not have most damage, but still allium's as Silver Spring, and ampeloprasum type's have a lot of damage.
The 1e year seedling as I posted photo's in the begin of this topic have only a little frost damage.
I think the photo's  I post tell it all.......... We will wait and see.......

Silverspring is not hardy with me. All stocks baught by me turned virus infected, but I have seedlings of it in greenhouse. Hope they will be healthy.
Janis