Egyptian Walking Onions
Bulbils for planting
Allium proliferum
This cold-hardy perennial Allium provides a great alternative to annual onions. While you are puttering away starting onion seeds under lights in March these creatures are already 6” tall and photosynthesizing. They provide some of the first green shoots to emerge in late winter/early spring. As the plant grows it typically produces one or more ‘topsets’ or clusters of clones at the top of its stalk. It also begins to divide underground, giving you options for how you want to propagate it. You could dig, store, and eat the underground bulb, while keeping the topsets for planting. You could divide and plant the underground part, or a combination of these methods. The underground bulb will get larger if the plant is prevented from or does not produce topsets, so you could cut some developing topsets off to grow bigger bulbs. We still haven’t decided which approach we want to take with these onions but the bottom line is they produce in abundance with no intervention and they provide plenty of opportunity to propagate. They even produce flowers! (But to my knowledge no viable seed). Buy these once and you shouldn’t have to buy them again. All parts of the plant are edible—underground bulbs, stalks, topsets. Egyptian Walking Onions are captivating, unbothered by cold, weed pressure, and weather extremes, and are easy to grow.
You will receive divided topsets (‘bulbils’) for planting, not the underground bulbs. Since bulbils can vary greatly in size (1/4” to 1”) we have decided to sell these by weight in 20 gram units. This will provide you with an average of 20 bulbils for planting. Smaller bulbils means you get more plants, while larger bulbils means you get more robust plants. Sizes will be mixed. Egyptian walking onions are not fussy about when they are planted. We generally plant them in the fall. If you decide not to plant them in the fall, keep them stored in cold, dry, dark conditions until early spring for planting.
Bulbils for planting
Allium proliferum
This cold-hardy perennial Allium provides a great alternative to annual onions. While you are puttering away starting onion seeds under lights in March these creatures are already 6” tall and photosynthesizing. They provide some of the first green shoots to emerge in late winter/early spring. As the plant grows it typically produces one or more ‘topsets’ or clusters of clones at the top of its stalk. It also begins to divide underground, giving you options for how you want to propagate it. You could dig, store, and eat the underground bulb, while keeping the topsets for planting. You could divide and plant the underground part, or a combination of these methods. The underground bulb will get larger if the plant is prevented from or does not produce topsets, so you could cut some developing topsets off to grow bigger bulbs. We still haven’t decided which approach we want to take with these onions but the bottom line is they produce in abundance with no intervention and they provide plenty of opportunity to propagate. They even produce flowers! (But to my knowledge no viable seed). Buy these once and you shouldn’t have to buy them again. All parts of the plant are edible—underground bulbs, stalks, topsets. Egyptian Walking Onions are captivating, unbothered by cold, weed pressure, and weather extremes, and are easy to grow.
You will receive divided topsets (‘bulbils’) for planting, not the underground bulbs. Since bulbils can vary greatly in size (1/4” to 1”) we have decided to sell these by weight in 20 gram units. This will provide you with an average of 20 bulbils for planting. Smaller bulbils means you get more plants, while larger bulbils means you get more robust plants. Sizes will be mixed. Egyptian walking onions are not fussy about when they are planted. We generally plant them in the fall. If you decide not to plant them in the fall, keep them stored in cold, dry, dark conditions until early spring for planting.
Bulbils for planting
Allium proliferum
This cold-hardy perennial Allium provides a great alternative to annual onions. While you are puttering away starting onion seeds under lights in March these creatures are already 6” tall and photosynthesizing. They provide some of the first green shoots to emerge in late winter/early spring. As the plant grows it typically produces one or more ‘topsets’ or clusters of clones at the top of its stalk. It also begins to divide underground, giving you options for how you want to propagate it. You could dig, store, and eat the underground bulb, while keeping the topsets for planting. You could divide and plant the underground part, or a combination of these methods. The underground bulb will get larger if the plant is prevented from or does not produce topsets, so you could cut some developing topsets off to grow bigger bulbs. We still haven’t decided which approach we want to take with these onions but the bottom line is they produce in abundance with no intervention and they provide plenty of opportunity to propagate. They even produce flowers! (But to my knowledge no viable seed). Buy these once and you shouldn’t have to buy them again. All parts of the plant are edible—underground bulbs, stalks, topsets. Egyptian Walking Onions are captivating, unbothered by cold, weed pressure, and weather extremes, and are easy to grow.
You will receive divided topsets (‘bulbils’) for planting, not the underground bulbs. Since bulbils can vary greatly in size (1/4” to 1”) we have decided to sell these by weight in 20 gram units. This will provide you with an average of 20 bulbils for planting. Smaller bulbils means you get more plants, while larger bulbils means you get more robust plants. Sizes will be mixed. Egyptian walking onions are not fussy about when they are planted. We generally plant them in the fall. If you decide not to plant them in the fall, keep them stored in cold, dry, dark conditions until early spring for planting.