Allium cernuum is the most widespread North American species of the genus. The genus is characterized by umbels—inflorescences with the stems of the individual flowers arising from a common point, like the struts of an umbrella. The bloom on this long-lived species consists of a cluster of individual flowers at the tip of an upright, leafless stem. The stems have a crook at the top that causes the umbel to nod downward, hence the common name nodding onion. Bloom color may vary from whitish to pink or lilac. The foliage is basal and grass-like with erect or arching leaves up to 12" long and 1/4" across that persist past the blooming period and die back in late summer. Each plant typically produces only one flowering stem that is up to 18" tall.
Nodding onion is easy to grow under average garden conditions. It prefers a high quality environment and soil that is moist to dry. Flower production is best with more sun, but it will tolerate open shade or dappled sunlight. The bulbs will produce offsets, creating dense clumps over time. It will spread readily by seed when grown in disturbed areas, but can easily be controlled by deadheading. The blooming period lasts 3 to 4 weeks from early to mid-summer.
Space plants 6"-12" on center.
Nodding onion spreads readily by seed and bulb offsets. Over time, it will form colonies in favorable conditions.
Companions with overlapping bloom times include pollinator magnets like Echinacea purpurea (eastern purple coneflower) and cultivars, Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed), Coreopsis palmata (stiff tickseed) and Penstemon hirsutus (hairy beardtongue). For blooms and pollinator support for later in the season, aim for Rudbeckia fulgida (orange coneflower) and related varieties and cultivars, along with fall-blooming asters such as Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (skyblue aster). Grassy companions might include Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed), Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama), and Eragrostis spectabilis (purple lovegrass).
Allium cernuum is very versatile and can be incorporated into meadows, or grown in cottage gardens or mixed perennial borders and beds. It is highly tolerant to deer and other herbivores. Can be grown in the proximity of black walnuts.
Allium was first described as a genus by none other than Carl Linnaeus (the father of modern taxonomy) in 1753, and is new Latin for "garlic." The specific epithet, cernuum, is a Latin adjective meaning drooping, pendulous, or leaning forward; hence the common name nodding onion.
Another interesting tidbit of trivia, is that the city of Chicago derives its name from the Algonquian word chigagou meaning "onion field"—a direct reference to Allium cernuum which was found in abundance in the area.
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Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
AL, AR, DC, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NY, OH, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, WI, WV, AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY |
Threatened | IA, MN, NY |
Arid West | FACU |
Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain | FACU |
Eastern Mountains and Piedmont | FACU |
Great Plains | UPL |
Midwest | FACU |
Northcentral and Northeast | FACU |
Western Mountains, Valleys, and Coast | FACU |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Liliopsida | Monocotyledons |
Subclass | Liliidae | |
Order | Liliales | |
Family | Liliaceae | Lily family |
Genus | Allium | onion |
Species | Allium cernuum | nodding onion |
nodding wild onion, wild onion, lady's leek
Allium allegheniense
Allium recurvatum
Allium oxyphilum
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.