What a week! Canada’s men’s team ‘drew’ 1-1 against Boznia and Herzegovina yesterday (is that the right way to say they tied?), our first ever world cup point for a men’s team, and the game was in Toronto so of course there was pandemonium in the streets, pandemonium I say (LOL – the hyperbole is fabulous around the world cup!!). We had our first few days of real summer weather – very hot and very humid – hot enough for sandals and bare toes finally. I hosted my first ever garden tour on Tuesday – the day before it got hot and humid, thankfully, and from what I could tell folks liked what they saw. Lots of good questions and wandering about. AND a new Allium, planted last fall, opened. Allium Schubertii – wonderfully weird and just huge! It’s one of six things in the garden today, joining Jim at Garden Ruminations and other gardeners around the world with their six’s.
So here’s the Schubertii, named after a German man born in 1780 who was a plant collector, and seemed to have discovered this beauty near the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. It’s short with a stem sturdy enough to carry the massive ball of flowers that appear at the ends of pedicels of two lengths: the shorter ones have fertile flowers and the longer ones have sterile flowers. Don’t ask me why. The overall effect is, to me, like a fireworks explosion. Apparently, after they age and the flower petals die off, the whole thing falls to the ground and blows about in the wind, giving it a common name of Tumbleweed Onion. Americans, or aficionados of American western movies, will recognize this name.
More alliums in bloom this week: the very tall, very white and quite lovely Mt. Everest; the very short, very rosy and quite lovely A. cristophii; and a row of medium height, very purple and quite lovely Globemaster. That’s also a Cristophii in the ‘featured’ photo at the top of this post. It, and a Lupin, found its way into the rhubarb bed and I hadn’t the heart to pull them out, either last year or this spring…brothers in arms, it seems…
On to peonies because they are now opening, becoming queens of the garden for few weeks. ‘Duchesse de Nemours’ is the white one, with sturdy stalks that don’t need support, usually, and this charming unknown pink one that arrived in a load of backfill about 20 years ago.
It seems that’s my six for the week…sad because of course there’s so much else happening in the garden this time of year, but good because I, and most every gardener, could go on and on and on! Have a great weekend everyone!
What a lovely six, the crazy and non crazy alliums and the beautiful peonies. Well done for the garden tour, I’m sure they loved it. Were you nervous?
A bit nervous, but everyone was so happy to be there…it was over in a flash
Lovely alliums! Bravo on the garden tour! That must have been fun!
It WAS fun! It spurred me on to finish a few projects that have been languishing as well..
Lots and lots of lovely flowers…I have Allium envy! Only one bloomed, here. Glad the Peterborough people enjoyed your garden. Very hot here…almost 90° for days.
90 degrees…ugh! Happily it was slightly cooler today, here, with much less humidity.
The abundance in the garden this time of year has our heads spinning! Very pretty six you chose, though I imagine it was hard. Even harder to choose come Monday. 😉
LOL Too True!!
Such a beautiful range of alliums! They are definitely something we want to incorporate more as we develop the garden. I recently saw the Cristophii one at an open garden – it’s just wonderful!
They’re really great. Interesting that, as the bulbs have matured in my garden, the stems have gotten longer…still not as tall as Purple Sensation or the other tall ones, but higher than I had expected for such a large flower ball.
Hi 🙂 I’m participating for the first time this week. The Schubertii and Globemaster look fabulous. I’m starting to regret not planting any alliums in my new garden, I guess that gives me an excuse to make another order later in the year. 😀 That bonus peony is absolutely stunning!
Hi Char! I also love the peony and hope it’ll last thru tomorrow’s forecasted storm…and yes, I’d absolutely recommend alliums for your garden! There’s so many different species that have different heights etc…
Allium schubertii and Allium christophii were my first two alliums from Tangly Cottage Gardening. I have grown no others yet. For some reason, alliums are rare here. Peonies are even more rare because they do not get enough chill in winter.
I don’t think I’ve seen Schubertii before in a garden…I think I would have noticed the distinct flowering structure. It’s large, maybe that’s why…and I think I should separate the three I have, they’re too close to each other to appreciate I think.
Mine were rather short, but that may have been an environmental issue. The blooms were so big on such short stems that they reached maybe halfway to the ground.
Of course I love the name ‘tumbleweed onion,’ but I love tumbleweeds, and have a quite large one atop a bathroom cabinet; I pulled it out of a barbed wire fence in Kansas.
Every now and then the sight of peonies reminds me of my grandmother and her friends; they called the flower “PINE-ies.” I went looking and learned that pronunciation is common in Appalachia and rural midwestern areas of the country, especially among older people — like Grandma!
The letter ‘i’ in pines has that curve to it, when spoken, doesn’t it? Like it should be spelled ‘peyen.’ Eye with a p in front and an n at the end. I’ve heard peonies pronounced that way before but perhaps it was in a movie…or TV show…along with the tumbleweeds…. 😆
Great cover photo of the lupin and allium.
Thank you!
So glad your opening went well Chris. Love all your Alliums.
Thanks Cathy!
Stunning Alliums! I noticed visible growth on one of my peonies this week, but the big question is: will they flower??🤞