WHY IT PAYS TO KNOW YOUR ONIONS
ORNAMENTAL onions are regular stars of July gardens and if you want to introduce a few to your borders now is the time to do so. Dormant bulbs are available at garden centres and autumn mail-order bulb catalogues.
The best known are the big, tall-stemmed types around 3ft tall with large spheres of flower such as the mauve Globemaster – my favourite due to its long-lasting qualities – and Purple Sensation that always turn heads in designer garden shows.
But there are others that are also worth looking out for. The rare allium schubertii grows 12in to 18in high, topped with strange, spiky, football-sized heads of flower that look as if they have been made of mauve wire.
When the colour fades the dead heads persist as weird geometric skeleton shapes, resting in borders between other plants when their own foliage has long since died down.
Allium karataviense makes small, neat plants with airy, pale pink spheres nestling above wide leaves. Bulbs of the most striking varieties can set you back a few bob – but the old faithfuls are far cheaper.
Allium sphaerocephalum, with tight maroon “drumsticks” on stiff 2ft stems and the short yellow allium moly, growing roughly 8in high, are good spreaders, ideal for naturalising.
Alliums thrive in most reasonable soils if they are fairly well drained but they like lots of sun. As a bonus they are good for cutting and some have great dried seed heads.
And no, the flowers do not smell of onions.