Below are a few of our favorite ornamental onions for the early spring season…all flowering now. There’s something about alliums in the garden that elicit smiles when they are in flower, compared to tears when we chop up their kin. Most early spring alliums are more bulbous, while many of the later, summer-flowering alliums grow instead from perennial crowns. The large flowered onions pictured here, originally came from our friends at Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.
Allium ‘Ambassador’ is one of the taller alliums we grow. Because the foliage on these begins to go dormant while they are coming into flower, we’ve planted these in the midst of a clump of Salvia darcyi. The emerging salvia foliage times perfectly to obscure the declining allium foliage.
Allium ‘Miami’ is another tall onion that we just adore. This hybrid of Allium atropurpureum and Allium schubertii produces a mass of 3′ tall stalks in early spring, and the rich purple color is just delightful.
Allium ‘Ostara’ is a new hybrid of Allium atropurpureum and the amazing, but ungrowable in our climate, Allium karataviense. The result is nothing short of spectacular, and easy to grow. This is another plant that needs a well-drained, dry site.
Allium schubertii is often referred to as tumbleweed onion. This native from Central Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean, which has been grown in gardens since the 1800s is just a joy to have in the garden.
Allium drummondii is a small, rock garden-sized native native onion. This dryland gem hails from South Dakota south to Texas.
Allium coryi is quite rare, hailing from only five counties in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. For us, it’s a fantastic rock garden specimen where the soil is dry and well-drained.
