Star-shaped flowers of allium that look like fireworks are very appropriate on this national holiday. These ornamental relatives in the onion family are just plain fun and easy to grow. Some are great for garnishes and flavoring in the kitchen.
There are some 500 species, from quite tiny to huge 6-foot tall plants. All are bulbous plants easily grown in a sunny spot with well-drained soil mixed with organic matter. Plant bulbs as deep as their height in either spring or fall and they'll reward you with flowers spring or summer, depending on cultivar. Colors range from white and yellow to shades of pink lavender and violet.
Some are tight balls very spherical in shape, while others are less symmetrical and more loosely held in a globe shape.
Slightly crushed leaves give off a definite onion aroma. Most flower heads are lightly scented with more of a floral bouquet fragrance.
As they bloom, foliage on the taller ornamentals become shaggy and dies back, so plant them among low companion plants such as low zinnias, nemesia or hardy geraniums to hide their exposed legginess.
All alliums prefer more dryness rather than too much wet, so be sure to give them good drainage and infrequent watering.
Popular choices
Starting with smaller types and graduating to the large ones, here are some alliums to consider planting this fall. The short ones are handy along the edges of borders. Be sure to plant edible ones handy to the kitchen.
Allium oreophilum is a wonderful little rock garden gem, growing 6 inches tall with rose flowers some 2 inches wide.
A. cernuum is another rock garden cutie, some 6 to 8 inches tall, with deep lavender blooms. It's also nice edging a border or naturalizing.
Chives (A. schoenoprasum) grow a foot or so high, blooming with clover-like rose balls atop their stems. Snip stems of the pungent leaves for flavorings, flowers for decoration and use as an edging along a garden path or even in a container near your kitchen door for easy picking.
Chinese or garlic chives (A. tuberosum) has flat leaves, rather than the rounded ones of regular chives, and the flavor is more pronounced, a mild garlic flavor. It's often used in Chinese cooking. It grows about the same height as chives, with white flower blossoms that are excellent used either fresh or dried in bouquets.
A. moly shows off sunny yellow blossoms on foot-tall stalks in late spring. It's also called golden garlic or society garlic and is very easy to grow.
Blue allium or A. cearuleum is another foot-high plant, but with lovely cornflower blue blossoms some 2 inches in diameter and quite dense. Nice naturalizing plant and good cut flower.
Drumstick allium (A. sphaerocephalon) has elliptical blooms in reddish-purple colors on stems some 2-foot tall. They're clusters of flowers are more tightly packed than some of the others.
One of my favorites is Allium christophii, also known as A. alpobilosum and commonly as the Star of Persia, growing huge clusters of amethyst-violet shooting stars reaching 6 to 12 inches across on stalks only 2 feet high. After blooming, they lose their coloring and dry right on the plant, making a large ball-shaped ornament.
A. globemaster is a hybrid cross growing 2 feet or so tall with spectacularly large violet blooms.
The most starburst-looking allium is A. Schubertii, with spidery petals bursting forth in various lengths. The plant itself is only 2 feet tall, while the pink flowering globes may reach 8 inches in diameter.
A. atropurpureum grows 2? feet high and offers dark purple, nearly black balls of clover-like flowers about two inches in diameter in a very dense head. It's a native of Eastern Europe.
A white allium, A. nigrum is more subtle in the landscape, some 2 feet tall with flattened white globe-shaped flowers with a touch of green at mid-vein. It's great as a cut flower and naturalizes easily.
Lilac globes some 2 to 3 inches wide show up in spring on A. aflatunense, teetering on 3 to 4 foot high stems. Their smaller size blooms are easier to blend in borders and a little more subtle than their giant-globed relatives.
The tallest of the alliums, A. giganteum reaches 4 to 5 feet tall, with deep pink globes the size of softballs atop these long stems. Their legginess calls for intermixing other annuals or perennials beneath them.
Buy allium bulbs from nurseries or garden catalogs this fall, or let your established plants reseed to increase your supply.
Alliums are fun to grow, and the larger types add a little zaniness to the garden when mixed in with other sun-loving plants.
Mary Fran Fryer is a Lewis County Master Gardener, and invites reader comments and suggestions. Contact her by e-mail at maryfran@sysmatrix.net, by mail at P.O. Box 430, Salkum, Wash., 98582 or by telephone at 985-7550.
