There are more than 400 Allium species, and to list them all here would be labour lost considering many of them have little garden merit or are not cultivated. There are Alliums that exist only as wildflowers all over the world.
Allium flowers are, in relation to many of the bulbs discussed on this forum, quite small. The attractive way in which these tiny blooms are arrange on the stems is what sets them apart. To the open umbels of Allium moly to the tight drumstick heads of Allium giganteum, the ornamental onions are very showy in their floral architecture.
The thing I love most about the alliums is that their flowers bridge the gap between spring-blooming alpines and bulbs and the more bounteous summer perennials. Also, they are of absolutely no interest to browsing animals such as deer. In fact, they are almost pest-resistant, and many gardeners grow strongly-scented alliums such as garlic and nodding onion around their roses and other pest-magnets to keep the bugs off. Last but not least, they are easy to grow, propagate by seed and they're sure to make lots of offsets to quench that desire for more plants.
ALLIUM BOOKS A book I can recommend on the subject is ALLIUMS: The Ornamental Onions by Dilys Davies To Quote the publishers... "This is the first monograph on the alliums in over 100 years, filled it with practical growing advice on more than 150 species. Beautiful color photos, line drawings, and recipes complement the gardener-friendly text."
It's available in Paperback from Timber Press ( www.timberpress.com ).
The Random House Book of Bulbs by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, has a hefty 12 pages on Alliums.
I have picked out some of my favourite Alliums for the listing below.
Allium ursinum - Bear Onion This onion is found all over Europe from Scotland to Finland down to Spain and Greece. It grows in damp woods, usually in very dense populations. The flowers are white and the ovary is prominent and green. What sets this Allium apart from many of the garden varieties are the wide leaves, almost Calla-like in appearance.
