Allium unifolium Eros

Ornamental Garlic or Allium unifolium 'Eros' is a cultivar derived from a botanical species native to mountainous areas in the western United States, which has the advantage of tolerating moist, even wet soils. It easily produces 2 to 3 flowering stems per bulb and offers an abundant flowering in early summer, in the form of pretty umbels of bell-shaped pink-lilac flowers.

Allium unifolium is a wild mountain plant, native to coastal regions of the western United States, including Northern California and Oregon. This herbaceous bulbous plant belongs to the allium family (liliaceae), like cultivated garlic, onion, and leek. It has a fleshy and fibrous storage organ that multiplies by forming bulblets. 'Eros' produces inflorescences perched at 30 to 35 cm high at the end of stems, which are umbels about 10 cm in diameter, consisting of about twenty large star-shaped flowers with pink-lilac petals. This flowering emerges from a dense and herbaceous clump, composed of deciduous green, linear and very narrow leaves, shorter than the flower stalks. It occurs around June. The plant self-seeds spontaneously in light and fertile soil.

Easy to grow in sunny, dry or moist, but well-drained soil and hardy down to -15°C, Allium unifolium 'Eros' can be used in borders, rock gardens, or in pots to enjoy its beautiful flowering on a balcony or terrace. Enhance your compositions with its fresh or dried flowers, they will bring a rustic and colourful touch. Plant it in groups of 5 tucked between ornamental grasses, dry soil perennials such as hyssops, thymes, arborescent artemisias or groundcovers, silver baskets or even aubrietas.

Small vegetable garden tip: plant some ornamental garlic in the middle of strawberries to protect them from fungal diseases, they will bring some pleasant blooms that are sometimes missing among the vegetables.