Egyptian Onions

by Frank Siegel
(Plainview, NY, USA)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157344580707335006/

As you are into succulents, I have been growing some "pregnant onions" from an old plant my sister was given many years ago.

I think they are beautiful.

I have seen them send up a flower stalk from their center, but I almost never have any.

Any ideas for having them flower? They reproduce like crazy from budding,and unless carefully culled, the pots turn into a mess of smaller plants.

Comments for Egyptian Onions

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Jan 15, 2015

To Promote Flowering...
by: Jacki

Almost every plant will start to produce flowers in response to stress - think about it.

If you feel in danger, it's a natural reaction to want to leave some progeny behind!

With onions, they generally will produce blooms when they're in warm conditions, and when the bulb is old enough (most often in the second year as they are 'biennial' or have a life cycle of two years).

Different kinds of onions have different ways of propagating themselves too. With Egyptian or Walking Onions, I find that they don't really produce an actual flower, the way that other onions do. They will produce a stalk alright, but it has papery coverings on more tiny bulblets.

This is just the way they've evolved to replace themselves.

The odd one might make an actual flower, because it's to their benefit (or the benefit of the species) to make some seeds once in a while, because those will evolve to adapt to changing conditions more easily than the bulbs, which in most cases will be identical to the parent.

And I agree - they are beautiful, and I grow them mainly for the spikey fleshy leaves, more than that onions themselves. Although, thinking about it now, they are fabulous when the leaves are small, chopped up like chives for an egg salad sandwich...

Feb 05, 2015

Onion bublets and flowers
by: Tom Breaux

I have grown the Egyptian walking onions for many years.

In cool weather areas, like Alaska, they will make little but bulblets at the top, bend over and drop off and you have many more onion plants.

However, in warm limits, Florida, they do not make the bulblets, the make flowers at the top of the stalk that turns into seed. I am a snowbird, live in Alaska and spend the winter in Florida. And that is what they do in both places. Just thought I would throw in my two cents worth of experience.

Feb 05, 2015

Good to know...
by: Jacki

Thanks Tom - that's very interesting that they have the ability to alter their methods of propagating themselves, depending on the conditions.

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