Allium 2011

[McGregor]

Love the Iranian Alliums Luc - they seem a distinctive bunch. Allium breviscapum is such a looker! I'm just getting into Alliums after editing Mark's first (and upcoming second article for the Quarterly). So my main choice from the seed exchange had some alliums and now the ones from the surplus seed ex as well. Have to go and see what is happening - been away at the International Rock Garden Conference and then had a visitor so only just getting straight.

[McDonough]

Just like to say that that I really enjoyed your NARGS article, Mark ....bedtime reading the last few nights! Particularly like Green Eyes and Wall of Pink....just wish they were available over here... Same applies to Curly Mauve (above). Victorialis is also a favourite and I'll post something about that one soon myself. If you ever get seed off that variegated nutans, would love to try it...  

Here's one of my spring favourites, Asian Allium carolinianum photographed a couple of days ago:

Catching up here

Thanks for your comments Stephen.  I need to get Green Eyes, Wall of Pink, and a few others into the hands of nurserymen, to start making these available.  Love the look of emerging shoots of A. carolinianum, nice picture, and an excellent clump of this beautiful species.  I used to grow about 5-6 forms of this; I'm down to one form that persists and flowers about 1 out of every 3 years, and it never increases.  Among some of the forms that I lost, where much easier and better growers, although that didn't help them when I allowed my garden to go wild with weeds for too many years when my two daughters were young and lack of time got the better of me. 

Seed of Curly Mauve will yield plants that are variably curly, most not as prostrate as the original, but some interesting curly-whirly plants should result... I'll be sure to collect seed this year.

I have a particularly robust form of Allium hymenorrhizum (closely allied to A. carolinianum) that has similar thick ruddy red shoots in spring.  Here are two views of emerging shoots from some years back, the plant is still with me and a good grower, although it makes very little seed, none in some years.



Allium hymenorrhizum robust form, at latter leaf growth, showing mildly falcate leaves, which is somewhet unusual for the species:


And a view of the emerging shoots on my Allium carolinianum back in 2001.  In the 10 years since, it has not increased, and is still just two shoots   In 2009, it was one of the rare years where it condescended to flower.  I have seen photos of spectacular forms of this species, my plant is not among them.

[McDonough]

Mark
How many species of allium do you grow? The list seems endless.
I'll have to think twice, before asking how many varieties and hybrids there are.

John, I used to grow approximately 130 species + many forms of certain species.  That count has paired back quite a bit through the years, although offset by a large increase in hybrids, so there are still lots of alliums here to pique my interest.  Sowing seed of some of the Iranian and Central Asian species starting a couple years back, and with many accessions from Kazakhstan last year (most have germinated), the numbers will hopefully increase, although it's a slow proposition with many of them, requiring 5-6 or more years from seed.  

For example, here is a photo (left) of some seedlings of A. shelkovnikovi, one of those dwarf C. Asian species with a ball of bloom just above wide leaves.  I sow my seed outside directly in the garden, marked with minimum of two labels.  In this view, you can see a couple fresh seedlings that just emerged a couple weeks ago, and a couple 2-year seedlings where the young immature leaves are starting to take on the gray curled leaf characteristics.  This was seed from Kurt Vickery.  The center photo shows a similar situation, with in-situ seedlings of Allium aff. elburzense (K.Vickery again), lots of fresh germination this year (2nd year germination) and a couple of silvery 2-year leaf sprouts fro germination last year.

Photo on the right shows fresh germination from Allium sp. coll. N. Sivas, Turkey, from NARGS Seed Exchange 2008-2009, which has only just germinated.  Folks, don't give up on those old seed sowings, you never know, one can still get good germination after 2 years!  Hooray!



Will catch up with other posts later.

[RickR]

...and I learned (in school?) that onion seed (Allium cepa) lost its viability rather quickly, that in practical terms it's not worth sowing seed more than a year old.  Is this only for the vegetable onion?  Only for dry seed?  Maybe moist storage prolongs viability?  Or maybe I'm just . . . . wrong?

[McDonough]

...and I learned (in school?) that onion seed (Allium cepa) lost its viability rather quickly, that in practical terms it's not worth sowing seed more than a year old.  Is this only for the vegetable onion?  Only for dry seed?  Maybe moist storage prolongs viability?  Or maybe I'm just . . . . wrong?

I have no experience with A. cepa seed, but I can vouch for relatively long viability of Allium seed for several years, particularly those species with larger thick seed, or round pellet-like seed, versus those with flatter flake-like seed.  I find that 2nd year germination is quite common on certain types of Alliums species, such as those in the Melanocrommyum section (a la Allium giganteum types).

[stephenb]

My experience is that seed of Allium cepa and fistulosum vegetable cultivars remains viable for 2-3 years, longer than the oft-quoted 1 year, at least under my storage conditions (cool cellar - 2-3C in winter and maybe up to 15C in summer).
 

[stephenb]

Here's my carolinianum in flower last summer! However, I've seen a significantly larger, more vigorous plant in the botanical gardens in Tromsø in Northern Norway, it seems to like cool conditions.

[stephenb]

Like the Allium hymenorrhizum pictures. I have  plants from 2 or 3 sources and none look at all like carolinianum. I have pictures of this species in both the Oxford and Copenhagen Botanical Gardens and I see that both look wrong!

[stephenb]

A. victorialis - closeup views showing the burlap-like reticulated bulb coats; the bulbs sitting at and above the soil level.
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Mark - I notice that all of your victorialis seem to have green rather than red bases. Is that correct? All of mine have red bases apart from Cantabria (that includes the Norwegian material, plants from the Kola Peninsular (NW Russia) and Asia (received as A. ochotense and ssp platyphyllum). Do you know if you find both green and red forms in the same populations?

[Tony Willis]

two forms of
Allium akaka from Eastern Turkey

[WimB]

Some Alliums flowering here now:

Allium akaka
Allium litvinovii
Allium nevskianum
Allium platycaule

and an Allium which was hiding in the packet of A. platycaule; which it clearly is not! Maybe A. akaka??

[stephenb]

More great Alliums Wim and Tony!

A couple of years ago I toured Northern Norway early June and a lovely white flowered Allium I hadn't seen before was in full bloom and I was told it was Allium humile. I can't find much reference to it on SRGC or here as it's such a lovely floriferous plant. It is very early (only paradoxum beats it here) and is a few days earlier than zebdanense. I was given a plant and it flowered here for the first time:

1) Picture taken in Tromsø, Northern Norway
2) I wondered what it was when i saw it in bud (I didn't immediately think Allium)
3-4) In flower last night

[Hoy]

Beautiful Allium, Stephen! I regret I didn't ask for a bulb when I visited you I will next time

[stephenb]

Last week I had several Allium experiences which I'd like to share with you. I've had a project the last 3 years for the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre collecting old perennial edible onions from old gardens and mostly old people across Norway (mostly Allium x proliferum, Allium fistulosum, A. schoenoprasum, A. scorodoprasum and A. victorialis, about 11 species in total and well over 100 accessions).  I'm currently growing them out in my garden so that we can compare the different accessions. Anyway I had to give a presentation of the project at a seminar in Southern Sweden. On the way home, I visited the Copenhagen (Denmark) and Gøteborg (Gothenburg) botanical gardens and took a lot of Allium (and other) pictures. In particular, Gothenburg has an amazing collection of plants and I could easily spend a couple of days there.  

Gøteborg has an fantastic bulb garden with many Alliums in honour of Per Wendelbo (1927-1981) who was a botanist and professor at the garden, specialising in Himalayan plants and many of the plants in the garden were collected by him. Here is a selection (see the file names for the plant names):

[stephenb]

The last batch from the Wendelbo garden, more from the open garden later. Let me know if you see any mistakes!