Strange onion?

After my post on the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day about the onion, my neighbour asked me what kind of onion is this?? I thought it was a normal onion you buy at the grocery store. Hmmmm! I think I’m wrong. Does anyone know what kind of onion this is? Is there such a thing as a French Onion? I have asked around and no one can help me. I know it is not a leek, but it does have a mild onion flavour. I have cooked with it and it is delicious.

And look – it’s about to get a flower. I’m curious to see what this looks like!

Any ideas?

[one_half]Nearly a flower[/one_half]

[one_half_last]My onions[/one_half_last]

Happy Gardening
xxx

Tags french onion, onion, spring onion

By Barbara

Country living is the best! Being a true spirit of the earth, my garden is all about vegetables and fruit trees and herbs and chickens roaming free. I was keen to really start gardening when we moved to Philadelphia in 2005, but not your typical suburban-type garden – sterile and bug-free! I wanted an edible garden.

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16 replies on “Strange onion?”

Maybe its an allium, or flowering onion. It might just be decorative instead of edible.

could it be a spring onion? (I’m writing as an eater not a grower)

I have a feeling you could be right! 🙂

Well, it’s hard to determine just from the picture of the greens without seeing the onion, but when you mentioned French onion, what comes to mind for me is a shallot, which grows similarly to onions.

I agree though, if you plan to harvest it, don’t let it flower!

You don’t want your onion to flower if you want to eat it. It will form a hard core where the bloom stalk arises. In warmer climates, onions are a cool season crop and do flower if not pulled at the right stage.

Pulling some soil away from the base of onion plants will help bulbs to form.

Thank you for your advice! I was just curious to see an onion flower!! All new to me 🙂

Onions have many varieties, maybe it is just one of those you are not familiar with. Do you know that onions don’t flower in hot climates? Here we don’t see them, and we always import onion seeds to produce the table onions.

So I’ll be able to harvest onion seeds!?! I’ll post a picture of the flowering onion for all to see!

Not sure either by your description of mild taste. Sorry.

Thanks Donna – all new to me! 🙂

looks like a onion.

That’s what I was trying to think of. Spring onions, gone to autumn onions? Do you just pull it up and eat bulb and leaves?

Sorry, can’t help with this. Big, healthy onions are something I only see in photos of other people’s gardens.

Half the onions I grow on the allotment seem to end up like this. They should still form a bulb if you remove the flower stalk but they won’t be good for long term storage.

Are these not some kind of spring onions? The leaves look like something I buy quite often that we put in salads. They are yummy.

Thanks Chris – I think you are right! They don’t have a bulb at the base and they just keep growing …:-)

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