Alliums, Alliums, Alliums

I love collecting rare edible and medicinal plants, and Alliums have become a favourite of mine, especially the wild perennial ones. I love them, they are hardy, beautiful, edible and medicinal. Most of the wild varieties are sadly very rare now.

Below is a list of alliums available on my website and some of the varieties that will be available in the coming months.

• Afghan Gandana Leek-Allium ampeloprasum. A short lived perennial leek from Afghanistan, with a long history of use there in many tasty dishes.

• Round Headed Leek- Allium sphaerocephalon. A beautiful perennial allium that is also edible.

• Wild leek- Allium ampeloprasum. A Mediterranean native, wild harvested for food and medicine for thousands of years.

• Babington Leek- Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii. Once common but now unfortunately a very rare variety of perennial leek. Babington Leek is both tasty and productive.

• Lady's Leek- Allium cernuum. A North American native perennial allium, that is both edible and ornamental.

• Delft Perpetual Leek- Allium ampeloprasum. Perpetually making new plants to form a clump of tasty leeks.

• Fragrant Flowered Leek- Allium suaveolens. A rare edible perennial allium.

• Perennial Leek St Victor's x Oerprei- Allium ampeloprasum. A cross between two very old varieties of perennial leek. They are large and tasty.

• Perennial Leek- Allium ampeloprasum. A productive perennial vegetable. It multiplies quickly and is very hardy.

• Mouse Garlic- Allium angulosum. A perennial wild edible allium from Europe. Winter dormant and summer flowering.

• Rosy Garlic- Allium roseum. A pretty Mediterranean native perennial allium. Wild harvested and used in many traditional dishes.

• Witch's Garlic, White Flower- Allium carinatum subsp. pulchellum F. album. Another great perennial edible allium from the Mediterranean. This lovely plant has bright white flowers and is wild harvested for a variety of local dishes.

• Witch's Garlic- Allium carinatum subsp. pulchellum. Same as the above but this variety has pink flowers. Another really beautiful plant.

• Meadow Garlic- Allium canadense. A perennial North American native allium. The bulbs, leaves and flowers are all edible. Traditionally harvested by native North Americans.

• German Garlic- Allium senescens. A summer flowering perennial allium, wild harvested for both food and medicine.

• Yellow Flowered Garlic- Allium flavum. A stunning bright yellow flowering allium. Also it's bulbs ,flowers and leaves are edible.

• Naples Garlic- Allium cowanii. A perennial allium with beautiful bright white flowers that are loved by bees and pollinators in winter.

• Curly German Garlic- Allium senescens ssp. montanum var. glaucum. A beautiful perennial allium with twisted leaves, that grows to form an interesting clump.

• Fragrant Flowered Garlic- Allium ramosum. East Asian native perennial allium. Wild harvested for food and medicinal uses. The bulbs, leaves and flowers are edible.

• Chives, Pink Flowering- Allium schoenoprasum. A pink flowering form culinary chives. It has all the same tasty uses as common chives.

• Chives, White Flowering- Allium schoenoprasum. A white flowering form of culinary chives. It has all of the same tasty uses as common Chives.

• Blue Chives- Allium nutans. All parts of this perennial allium are edible, and it produces pretty pink flowers, that look great in the kitchen garden.

• Garlic Chives- Allium tuberosum. Garlic flavoured chives, that quickly grow to form a perennial clump.

• Bunching Onion- Allium fistulosum. Alliums that multiply to form perennial clumps. The whole plant can be harvested, or you can use the leaves as a cut and come again crop, delicious raw or cooked. The varieties that I keep are-

  • Sperling Toga

  • He-Shi-Ko

  • Welsh Onion-Red Stem

  • Deep Purple

  • Red Beard

  • Evergreen Bunching

  • Shimonita

  • Fuyuyo

  • Natsuyo

  • Winter Ishikura

  • White Lisbon

• Portuguese Onion- Allium lusitanicum. A hardy perennial allium that is both edible and ornamental. It freely multiplies to form a clump.

• I'itoi Onion- Allium cepa var. aggregatum. A rapidly multiplying onion originally from Spain.

• Japanese Onion- Allium thunbergii. A wild edible perennial allium from East Asia. It also has beautiful ornamental flowers.

• Potato Onions- Allium cepa. A great old fashioned perennial multiplying onion. The colours that I keep are-

  • Red

  • White

  • Brown

  • Golden Brown

• Egyptian Walking Onion- Allium x proliferum. A productive perennial allium that doesn't produce flowers, but bulbils. Edible and an interesting looking plant for the vegetable garden.

• Ever Ready Onion- Allium cepa perutile. A hardy perennial vegetable, very rare. Multiplies quickly . Does not flower.

• Chinese Onion- Allium chinense. An evergreen edible perennial allium. Used in many traditional dishes and medicinally. The flowers are beautiful and provide a great display in the kitchen garden.

New varieties that are coming soon to the website-

• Garlic- an old variety that has been grown by my family for at least the last 50 years. It produces large bulbs and keeps very well.

• Pearlzweibel- (Pearl Onion) Allium ampeloprasum 'Pearlzwiebel'. A very rare allium, that looks similar to garlic but produces solid spherical bulbs instead of cloves.

• Allium nigrum-Black Garlic

• Allium Hookeri- Hooker's Onion

• White Garlic- Allium neapolitanum

• TwistedLeaf Garlic- Allium obliquum

• Snowy Onion- Allium humile

• Allium moly

• Allium alflatunense

• Allium victorialis

• Perennial Blue Leek- Allium ampeloprasum

• Plus a few more surprises in the long term works

Midsummer Herbs