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What's Blooming Now - May 22, 2009
May Showers Bring May Flowers
 And what flow ers they are! In the Virginia Fairbanks Sun Garden the wild blue indigo is spectacular. It’s joined by a few yellow coreopsis and lots of purple salvia. The far end of the Sun Garden, across from the Efroymson Wedding Garden, has filled in, now that the tall cottonwoods have been removed. Look for columbine in many colors and sun-tolerant hostas. The Ruth Lilly Shade Garden is transitioning from early spring blooms to a summer carpet of green. Make sure you look for the yellow wood poppy and white Solomon’s plume under the bald cypress. Look closely and you may find the unusual flower of Italian arum (left).
The tulips and daffodils are gone and have just been replaced by annuals. In a few weeks, these plants will fill their allotted space. They’ll add color until the first frost.
Bring on the Onions!
I admit to a weakness for onions, in both kitchen and garden. The last few years have seen an explosion of interest in ornamental onions. Why? They are easy to grow in a sunny, well-drained site. They come in many forms, from small and delicate, to bold and showy . They are a great way to bridge the gap between tulip’s end and annual’s beginning. Most bloom mid-May but a few, like garlic chives, show off at the end of the season (look for it in August in the Sunken Garden).
My first experience with ornamental onions was at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. They had selected onions that grew to three feet topped by a six inch ball of purple flowers. What a crowd stopper! These plants had the typical onion flower head – a collection of small purple to blue flowers held together in a sphere. You see this form in the photo of chive flowers (Allium schoenoprasum) to the right. The flower head is about the size of a golf ball.
 Choose a different species of onion and you’ll get a different flower. Two others in the Gardens have purple flowers. Star of Persia (Allium cristophii) has very open, shiny flowers held in a 5-inch+ ball. This will wow you – until you see Allium schubertii.  The flowers of this onion are held at different lengths from the center of the ball giving a fireworks effect. At 12” wide, it can stop you in your tracks. Our creative gardeners don’t cut this plant back once the flowers fade. They let the seed-head dry, then save it for Christmas decorations. With a coat of gold or silver paint, it can become the star at the top of your tree.
Another onion you’ll see in the Gardens is Allium moly or lily leek. With yellow flowers, these are original Garden onions, flowering as well now as they did ten years ago. They’ve spread a bit but aren’t aggressive.
The most unusual onion in our Gardens is Egyptian walking onion or Allium x proliferum. The flower stalk produces not only flowers but also small onion bulbs.  Both the underground and above ground bulbs are edible. How does it walk? When the flower stalk falls over, the bulbs at the top root and grow, creating another plant.
Mary Welch-Keesey
Consumer Horticulture Specialist
Purdue University
Dick Crum Resource Center
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