Allium stellatum, Prairie Onion


Prairie Onion nearly at full bloom

Prairie Onion is a stalwart of the short grass prairie garden. It's slow-to open fireworks give you two months of color in the summer and if you leave the drying flowers into autumn, you may enjoy its shiny black seeds. May be slow to establish from seed, but it will self-seed, eventually, in the right conditions. Plant this alongside Prairie Phlox, Butterflyweed, Prairie Dropseed, Blue Grama, Hoary Vervain, and more.

Blooms: white to pink to lavender, July and August

Height: 16 to 22 inches

Conditions: sun to pt sun, well-draining medium to dry soils

Before full bloom, A. stellatum appears like A. cernuum, Nodding Onion.


Prairie Onion flowers pushing out of its spathe in the earliest stages of bloom.
 

View from down under
 

Shiny black pearls in autumn