Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Amateur Gardening

    This week… Alliums

    May 17, 2022 4 minutes
    WITH GRAHAM RICE

    ALLIUMS are instantly recognised by the smell of their leaves, especially when crushed. Edible types include onions, spring onions and leeks. Herbs and flavourings include chives and garlic. Ornamental types, often known as ornamental onions, are grown for their attractive heads of tiny flowers.

    Ornamental onions either grow from bulbs or make clumps of fleshy roots and may have a particularly pungent smell.

    In all alliums, vertical stems are topped with clusters of tiny tubular or star-shaped flowers gathered into heads of anything from 20 or 30 to many hundreds and up to 12in (30cm) across.

    Great performers

    The leaves may be slender and almost

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Amateur Gardening

    Amateur Gardening2 min read
    Grow A Tiny Edible Garden
    Limited space shouldn’t limit your ability to grow things to eat. On my balcony, I harvest all kinds of organic greens, herbs and sun-kissed vegetables - and there’s nothing better than picking them super fresh. A trough filled with cut-and-come-agai
    Amateur Gardening3 min read
    Post-flowering Bulb Care
    The other day I was talking to a friend who’s a keen gardener and she let slip the fact that in late spring she digs up and bins her tulips and buys fresh each autumn. I was aghast (she does the same with begonia tubers too) because while bedding tul
    Amateur Gardening2 min read
    A Warm Welcome
    It has long been observed that we in the UK are rather obsessed with the weather. Generally speaking, much small talk and day-to-day chatter is filled with commentary of the season or temperature at hand. Over these past few months, with the sheer vo

    Related