Allium stellatum
Prairie , cliff , pink wild , autumn , or settle glade onion … I ’ll just sit back and let the many common names ofAllium stellatumtell you all about this pretty plant for me .
“ Pretty ” and “ onion ” in the same sentence ? Why , yes !
Early in the spring when there is n’t much green screening in the garden yet , this plant is sprouting leaves .
Allium cernuum, aka nodding onion.
We link to vendor to help you find relevant mathematical product . If you grease one’s palms from one of our links , we may garner a commission .
When summer and twilight roll around , it supply delicate pops of light-colored pink to lavender star - work blooms , topping each base in an umbrella - shaped cluster .
I suppose there is more to order you about this flora … such as it ’s solely comestible , loves ironical areas , and repels worm plague and rodents from the garden .
Allium cernuum, aka nodding onion.
In this guide , I ’ll cover to how to cultivate this well-fixed , attractive garden addition .
What You’ll Learn
Quick Look
Propagation
How to Grow
Where to grease one’s palms
Maintenance
Pests and Disease
Best Uses
Native to key North America , A.stellatum , along with several other skinny family penis , were used as solid food and medicine by Native Americans and other settler for generation .
This Allium cepa family member is all edible , from the bulbs to the bloom . The light bulb were and are consume raw or cooked and the leaves and flowers may be eaten novel .
Common name(s):Prairie onion
flora type : bloom recurrent medulla oblongata
Hardiness ( USDA Zone):3 - 8
aboriginal to : North America
Bloom clip : Summer
Exposure : Full Dominicus to part shade
Soil type : Sandy , well draining
Soil pH:6.6 - 7.5 , slightly acidic to slightly alkaline
fourth dimension to due date : Up to 2 eld
Spacing : 4 - 6 in
Planting depth:1/8 column inch ( seminal fluid ) , 4 inch ( light bulb divisions )
suppurate size:12 - 18 in gamy
piddle need : Low
Taxonomy
ordering : Asparagales
household : Amaryllidaceae
Genus : Allium
specie : stellatum
sweeten decoction of the bulbs were make to children to relieve stale symptom , and extracts from the plant were used to alleviate congestion and febricity , and to help bring around infections .
The flush pop open on 12- to 18 - inch - tall stems in July or August and will provide a show of pink to light royal efflorescence for about three calendar week . They pull and are pollinated by a variety of insect , especially small solitary bees .
A. stellatumlooks very similar to and is easily confused withA.cernuum , alsoknown as nod onion plant .
The most noticeable difference is that nodding onion ’s umbel bends downwards . And individual prairie Allium cepa flower are more sensation - form than the rounded flower ofA. cernuum .
fortunately , they are both eatable if you happen to be foraging for tempestuous onion plant and do n’t be intimate the departure between these two pinkish - purple flowering Allium .
This ego - pollenate works is easy propagated from seed or medulla oblongata sectionalisation .
From Seed
get flowers flower and go to seed . Collect the small dim seeded player from the plant in autumn , once the seed head is brown and dry .
The seeds need a period of cold social stratification before they will germinate , so the easiest option is to sow the seeds directly into the ground in the fall and watch for them to evolve the following spring .
If you prefer to save the seed to seed in the spring , store them over wintertime in a cool dry pip . Before you set , refrigerate them in moist sand for at least 60 twenty-four hour period .
Sow them in pots indoors to get an early start , or lineal seeded player where you want to grow outdoors after all jeopardy of rime has pass .
Here ’s how :
Growing this beauty from seminal fluid is easy but it may take several days of growing before the plant produces flowers , so making medulla oblongata divisions can be a warm way to multiply the number of bloom in your garden .
By Bulb Divisions
Once a plant has eight to 10 shoots , or every third class , you could dig up and separate the bulblet from the parent lightbulb .
you’re able to separate prairie onion plant at any time during the growing season , but the best time to separate and plant the bulbs is in the autumn .
After you have dig up the parent bulb , carefully pull out the larger bulblets off , but pass on any flyspeck showtime still attached to allow for them to uprise larger before separating in a late season .
Plant each new sectionalization and the parent bulb rootage side down about four inches mystifying and four to six inches apart into tease dirt . hatch with soil , and water gently .
As a drought patient of , cliff - jazz native that ’s sturdy in Zones 3 - 8 , prairie onions are soft to care for .
Besides soggy stain , the only other thing these works are intolerant of is competition with marvelous , aggressive plants that can herd them out .
Light
A. stellatumthrives in full sun . At least six hours of direct sunlight per day is essential for full-bodied flowering and compact ontogenesis .
While it can tolerate some light specter , in particular in the good afternoon , excessive shade will lead to watery shank and slim down blooming .
For the most striking floral display , pick a site where the plant wo n’t be overshadowed by taller neighbor .
Soil
Prairie onions will happily grow in spots that would be inhospitable to other plants . They ’ll develop in gravel , on limestone cliffs , and in juiceless sandlike territory , loam , or calcareous soil .
This plant prefers arenaceous grime with a pH of 6.6 - 7.5 but will brook your intermediate garden ground as long as it drains well . That ’s all they enquire .
Temperature and Humidity
Prairie onion plant is inhuman - unfearing and well - suited to USDA zone 3 to 8 . It tolerate a wide reach of seasonal temperature , from icy winter to blazing summer heat .
It prefers dry air such as that found on the plain of North America but can take more humidness as long as there is good airflow .
It plump hibernating in winter , stack away vim in its underground bulbs to reemerge in late saltation or early summer .
Water
A. stellatumgrows fibrous roots from the base of its bulb that reach late into the ground , and matured plant are drouth large-minded .
If you irrigate too often or if the soil is not well debilitate , the bulb are susceptible to rot . piddle at times when the soil is dry to at least four inches down in the absence of rain .
Fertilizer
There is no motive to go out of your way to feed this industrial plant , but if you are fertilizing any hem in plant in the garden , it wo n’t hurt prairie onion to get a short additional nutrition .
Container Growing
Though typically grown in the ground , prairie onions can be cultivated in containers provide a few primal requirements are met .
Use a deep pot with fantabulous drain hole and fill it with a gritty , well - draining mix — something like cactus potting mix or a blend of loam , gumption , and perlite .
select a container at least 10 inches deep to allow for root development .
Water meagrely and position the bay window in full Lord’s Day . Keep in mind that containerized bulbs may postulate more frequent division and replanting every few years to prevent overcrowding .
Prairie Allium cepa is not commonly found in seed catalogs or at plant nurseries and garden centers . If you find some develop wild , you could compile seeds to start your own , or take a friend or neighbour for a bulb division .
Prairie Onion seed
you’re able to findA. stellatumseedsavailable from Everwilde Farms via Amazon .
These low maintenance plants require very little work , and will typically take care of themselves .
Since this industrial plant ego sows promptly , you may want to off the source capsules if you do n’t need them develop all over your garden .
The leafage dies back during or shortly after flowering and can be removed if you choose a tidy garden , or leave in place to decompose into the soil .
Fortunately , there are no serious louse pests and very few disease that affect this plant life . The oniony sense of smell repels moles , rabbits , and browse cervid .
The disease that can impress the foliage ofA. stellatumalso impact other alliums , but the known severity of these is special .
Allium cepa white rot is one disease that might assail your plants .
Infection byStromatinia cepivora , a soilborne fungus , causes yellow , wilted foliation and root radioactive decay , lastly attack the electric light . If your flora is infected , you will comment clean flossy fungous growth at the foundation of the bulb .
It is most common from midsummer to fall – roughly during the period when prairie onion plant is bloom – and flourish in waterlogged soil .
This fungous pathogen can survive in the soil for years . When the soil is dry and at least 75 ° farad , it is a much less destructive job .
Since incandescent lamp can carry this disease , the good means to quash it is to pass around your plant life via ejaculate .
If you mark leafage yellow and wilting and find rot at the bottom of the bulb , reduce watering to endeavor to prevent the disease from progressing .
row of this beauty make beautiful scant perimeter or edges , they do well in gravel and rock garden , and they will hold their own inwildflower planting .
Plant with other aboriginal perennial , or adorn your vegetable garden and grow prairie onions near cabbage family penis , pelf , carrots , cultivated celery , tomatoesand herbs likedill , Petroselinum crispum , andchamomile .
Prairie onions help to repel pest and encouragebeneficial insectsand pollinators .
If you make up one’s mind to snack on your prairie onions , try adding the efflorescence and chop leaves to salad . The bulbs can be grind up and used exactly likebulb onionsand are delicious either naked or cooked .
Pretty in Pink and Smelling of Onion
Do n’t judge her . It ’s the tiptop of summer and she ’s blooming hard – she ’s allowed to be a small smelly .
downcast maintenance , attractive to pollinators and people , and happy to grow in place other plants would wither in ? I ’m sold on this comestible lulu .
And for more entropy aboutgrowing alliumsin your garden , check over out these guide next :
© require the Experts , LLC . ALL right field RESERVED.See our TOSfor more point . Originally published February 10th , 2021 . Last update : May 5th , 2025 . Product pic via Everwilde Farms . Uncredited photos : Shutterstock . With extra composition and redaction by Clare Groom and Allison Sidhu .
About
Sylvia Dekker
