Allium hybrids

Antennaria@aol.com Antennaria@aol.com
Wed, 12 Nov 2003 19:58:11 PST
"Jamie" jamievande@freenet.de wrote:

>Although I've tried with the few "ball" type 
>Alliums, such as A. giganteum, A. jesdianum, 
>A. christoffii, A. schubertii and their possible 
>hybrids (Lucille Ball, Globemaster, hollandicum, 
>etc), I've never managed to set seed through 
>intrageneric pollination. I've found all the named 
>cultivars I have to be sterile.  Of course, this is
>a limited group! 

>I remember a wonderful article in the IBS BULBS 
>on A. flavum cultivars.

That was my article entitled "The rainbow color genesis of Allium flavum ssp. 
tauricum" that appeared in IBS BULBS earlier this year.     

>Is anyone working with Allium?

I have selected a good number of Allium hybrids, mostly of the rhizomatous 
types.  I have also been selecting color forms of Allium flavum ssp. tauricum 
for quite a while, resulting in the huge color range which was the subject of my 
aforementioned article.  While the "big ball" type of allium (section 
Melanocrommyum) are interesting and showy, they are actually not as useful in the 
garden as those species that grow all season long with handsome foliage clumps, 
such as the Rhizirideum section of the genus (those with bulbs attached to 
rhizomes).  There is tremendous untapped potential in developing superior hybrids 
of summer/fall growing alliums.  I have previously posted a number of Allium 
hybrid pictures to the PBS wiki.


Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States 
antennaria@aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
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