#alliumglobemaster

Mid May and the garden beds are filling in fast!   Gorgeous sparkles of color brought by the Alliums, Amsonia,Peonies, Salvia and Thalictrum.  

Third week of May and the garden is full of lush new growth, and, purple, lots of purple !

THE ONION

On a recent trip to Bolivia, I stayed with a family that grew fields of onions and sold them in the market (a 10 hour truck ride away) as their families livelihood.  This family lived in a mud house and did the cooking in an outdoors kitchen, where my host mother would spend hours preparing onion flavored foods on an earth stove (a.k.a. a fire pit).  The house was about functionality, not excess, which meant the guest room was also the onion storage room, so every night I would drift to sleep by the wafting smell of sweet onion.

Now in New York I often see this familiar globed flower ornamenting the cities precious gardens.  This bright purple Allium Globemaster, a variation of the onion, is used for it's beauty and to attract butterflies.