This week… Alliums

ALLIUMS are instantly recognised by the smell of their leaves, especially when crushed. Edible types include onions, spring onions and leeks. Herbs and flavourings include chives and garlic. Ornamental types, often known as ornamental onions, are grown for their attractive heads of tiny flowers.

Ornamental onions either grow from bulbs or make clumps of fleshy roots and may have a particularly pungent smell.

In all alliums, vertical stems are topped with clusters of tiny tubular or star-shaped flowers gathered into heads of anything from 20 or 30 to many hundreds and up to 12in (30cm) across.

Great performers

The leaves may be slender and almost