Allium cernuum (Nodding Onion) Unity Grown

Allium cernuum, also commonly called nodding onion, is a perennial wildflower closely related to other wild and culinary onions; native to large parts of the US and Canada, and especially around mountainous areas, nodding onion is noted for its unique, drooping or nodding clusters of light purple flowers. Similar to other Allium blooms, nodding onion is a magnet for pollinators and adds the appeal of larger showy Allium species to much smaller spaces. Growing to only 12-18" tall in narrow clumps only 3-6" wide, Allium cernuum is hardy and versatile, and will tolerate medium-wet to medium-dry sites with clay, poor, rocky, or fertile soils. Due to the pungent, oniony scent of the plants' tissues and bulbs, it is naturally deer and rabbit resistant, and its attractive flowers are important to a number of important pollinators, including native bees that don't mind crawling upside-down to get at the flowers' nectar through the mid to late summer months.

In the spring, foliage emerges from large, rounded, onion-like bulbs; though these bulbs were commonly used as a historic onion or garlic substitute, their bitter flavor makes them less common in cooking today; nodding onion's bulbs, while occasionally tasty, do more to serve the plants in terms of drought and black walnut soil tolerance. Allium cernuum grows best in full sun to partial shade, and its tolerance of dry, nutrient poor soils makes it a great addition to rock gardens, but equally as great an addition to woodland gardens, small flower beds, and pollinator plantings.