What Flower Bulbs Look Like Onions

Numerous flowers grow on in pointy clusters on showy stalks above the leaves.

What flower bulbs look like onions.

Nematodes cause tops to yellow prematurely and bulbs to deform while thrips show up as white spots on the leaves. Schubert s allium is a spring flowering bulb with strap like foliage that is planted in the autumn. True bulbs such as daffodils tulips hyacinths and snowdrops often have a papery skin or tunic on the outside much like an onion. This is why it s important to let leaves of bulbs like tulips and daffodils remain and stay green until they naturally die back.

The bulbs look like onions but do not smell like onions. This allium grows from rhizomes rather than forming bulbs and may be available in containers. The flower head and seed head look like fireworks exploding. Looks like an amaryillis that wants to be an orchid seem to flower best when left undisturbed in pot following year valleylynn added sprekelia formosissima is native to mexico.

Overwintered dry in basement. There are various common names for this ornamental onion but none refer to what is clearly its most striking feature. Bulbs with a papery covering are called tunicate bulbs the tunic helps protect the bulb from drying out when it s resting or waiting to be planted. They do best in well drained alkaline soil kept dry during their winter dormancy.

All is not lost after an onion flowers. The flower stems. Inside a true bulb is a central shoot that contains layers of leaves and immature flowers. Once your onions bolt their bulbs stop growing and their storage capacity diminishes.

Make sure the plants will have enough cool nights to develop bulbs and cloves. Unless you re growing onions allium cepa to collect their seeds you don t want want bulbs on their tops. Bending over or cutting off the flower stalk won t re initiate bulb development. But also look out for signs of pests that are stunting growth.

Larger bulbs capable of more than one blooming stem. While its display is dramatic there is one serious drawback to growing this plant. Its small quarter inch cream or white colored flowers are six parted and the petals have a green heart shaped structure on them. The rigid stalk penetrates the bulb and after harvest its early decay causes the entire onion to decay.

They may look interesting even ornamental but they signal that something went wrong. Onions are biennial which means they ordinarily produce bulbs in their first year of growth then if left in the garden they flower and bear seed in their second year. With bulbs planted in your garden this central shoot forms after flowers fade.