A is for allium in April

Alas, poor Allium. I knew them, Horatio. This week the condo lawn service ventured down along the creek and mowed off all the allium. When I got there, the scent of wild onion was gone.

"Plants are smart", the nature guide at Connemara told us last fall. Plants learn how fast to mature before the mowers arrive. The allium on the flat part of the creek bank flowered at a height of six inches max back in March.
That's an easy spot for mowers to chop. Mowers attack easily-accessible and billable areas.

On the steep banks, the allium plants grew over a foot tall before doing elaborate, slow openings of pods and flowers on twisted alien stems.





© 2010 Nancy L. Ruder