Allium cepa

[Farhan Ahmed]

Botanical Name	Allium cepa
Family	Alliaceae, also related to Amaryllidaceae and Liliaceae
Genus	Allium(Onion)
Specie	N/A
Local Name in Urdu	پیاز
Common Name	Ornamental onion
Life Cycle	Perennial
Cultivar Name	N/A
Category(Bulb/Corm/Tuber/Rhizome/root)	Bulb
Hardiness	Hardy
Hardiness Zone	Zone 5 to 10
Soil PH	6.0 to 6.7-7.0
Planting Time	Fall/Autum
Planting Depth	12.5cm to 20 cm
Spacing	10cm to 20cm Dependin on the size of the bulb
Height	30cm to 120cm Depending on the variety
Exposure	Full or partial sun
Flowering Time	Spring to Mid Summer
Flower Color	Blue, Purple, White, Yellow and Red
Fragrant	No but odour like Onion
Uses	Grow in pots, flowering beds, borders and used as cut flower and a number of varieties are edible(leaves and bulb both)
Propagation	By dividing the off sets and planting them separately when they are dormant, few Alliums produce bulbils on flower head, remove them and plant them separately also they can be propagated by seeds
Difficulty(Easy/Intermediate/Hard )	Hard
Suitable for (KHI/LHR/RWL/ISL/PWR/High Lands)	Cold areas like Highlands may flower in RWL/ISL
Tips to grow	Alliums thrive in a sheltered, sunny, open, well-drained site. They do not like cold, exposed or waterlogged conditions. Also avoid planting in freshly manured soils. A number of smaller growing species do well in cooler, moister conditions
Other Details	The majority of Allium species are native to the Northern Hemisphere, Asia and few species are native to Africa and Central and South America Allium species are herbaceous perennials with flowers produced on scapes. They grow from solitary or clustered tunicate bulbs and many have an onion odour and taste. Plants are perennialized by bulbs that reform annually from the base of the old bulb

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Not a plant for me I have wasted enough money and labor on them.

[khabbab]

Desi piyaz flowers easily in lahore

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

Desi piyaz flowers easily in lahore

[Munir]

Never heard earlier,probably never seen also,except kitchen onion;thus a new knowledge for me-thanks Farhan. A few queries:
>> Why are the two images so different?
>> Why are they hard to grow, when the kitchen onion are very easy? Is this the main reason that they are not used as food?
>> Are the bulbs of these varieties just like kitchen onion?
>> Are their seeds available here?

[newton]

Here are some that I planted into a pot a couple of years ago. I underplanted them with tulips and daffodils, so as one died back the other flower came up...at the end of the season I put them away in the storage corner and forgot about them until I noticed the alliums in full bloom again earlier this year

[Hamad]

Never heard earlier,probably never seen also,except kitchen onion;thus a new knowledge for me-thanks Farhan. A few queries:

>> Why are the two images so different?

Munir sb there are many varieties available in the market but mainly divided into two groups, one is Big as you can see in the first picture with globed shaped flower and second one is small with a different looking flower and they also have different bulb sizes, the bulb size varies from few cm to inches

>> Why are they hard to grow, when the kitchen onion are very easy? Is this the main reason that they are not used as food?

Actually the Ornamental variety is meant for cold climate, some varieties are recommended for zone 4 to 6 but there are some varieties for Zone 7-9 if the right variety will be purchase which will be viable for our Zones and with due care I hope they may flower but cant say any thing for sure. As Arif sb said he tried but they didn't bloomed for him and for Newton they are blooming because I believe he is growing them in UK where the weather is cold enough but there are some remedies in place but again depend on the variety and the tips to grow as you live in RWL/ISL you may get success in blooming them and I heard though don't have experience that the small variety in second picture may flower easy as compare to big once

>> Are the bulbs of these varieties just like kitchen onion?

No

>> Are their seeds available here?

it will be a long process from seeds the best is to try them from bulb, I will arrange few for you

Hamad

[Syed Adnan]

Dears,

Alliums are not made for Pakistan weather of warmer areas , might be possible in Muree or colder areas but not in LHR,KHI,ISL. I tried last year myself and given bulbs to friends in LHR and ISL , but no succcess. They depict a nice foilage but died in the heat of March, I agree with Brig. Sb, donot waste money on them. Infact Alliums, Tulips, Hycinths , Crocus and Dutch Iris are out of my list now. All of them needs a prolong winter to bloom.

[Hamad]

indeed that's why I wrote down for Highlands like Abbottabad and Murree, but could work in RWL/ISL (as KHI,LHR and PWR are more hot than ISL/RWP) again depending on the variety (cultivar) and way to grow, did your friend (in ISL) tried any tip to grow them or just planted them straight away and were they small or big and did they dig them out once the foliage died back?

Hamad

[newton]

The alliums pictured above are indeed grown in the UK however the secret to growing many of these temperate climate bulbs in Pakistan is to

Before the planting season place them in the fridge for a period of around 6 weeks, making sure they don't freeze. You can keep them there for around 8 weeks but no more than 12 as prolonged chilling actually kills off the cells in the bulbs.

Don't store them with fruit and veg as many of these emit compounds that will hasten the bulbs rotting process. You will not immediately see this as the damage occurs deep inside, where the bulbs generally abort the deeply seated baby flower buds.