Allium dispersal? Well, this week was the week when vegetatively propagated onions from the Allium Garden Chicago in Trondheim were dispersed to members of the Norwegian Seed Savers organisation (KVANN; kvann.no) across the country for safekeeping (backup) and, hopefully spreading onwards in a year or two to other members! It’s been a very busy week digging up, sorting and packing altogether 271 portions of 62 varieties to 54 members! In case you were curious, below is the list of Alliums and a few other things I had promised folks. There were sent many land races of Allium x proliferum (luftløk / walking onion) and also many sand leek land races (Allium scorodorprasum) It’s too late to order now, but seed will be offered in the new year. 1 Allium “Wietses onion” 2 Allium brevistylum 3 Allium caeruleum (bulbils) 4 Allium carolianum 5 Allium cernuum «Alan Kapuler» 6 Allium cernuum «Dwarf White» 7 Allium cernuum “Tall White” 8 Allium cernuum x stellatum “Hammers Planteskole” 9 Allium douglasii 10 Allium fistulosum «Ex-Salatnyj 35» 11 Allium flavum “Blue Leaf” 12 Allium flavum var minus 13 Allium hookeri var muliense 14 Allium hymenorhizum 15 Allium ledebourianum 16 Allium moly 17 Allium angulosum x nutans “Norrlandsløk fra Lund” 18 Allium nutans 19 Allium nutans “Isabelle” 20 Allium ochotense “Tei, Japan” 21 Allium schoenoprasum subsp boreale Stonglandseidet, Senja (Siberian chioves) 22 Allium scorodoprasum unknown variety 23 Allium scorodoprasum Abrahamsplassen 24 Allium scorodoprasum Bornholm, Danmark 25 Allium scorodoprasum Grums, Sverige 26 Allium scorodoprasum Homborsund Fyr 27 Allium scorodoprasum Kvinnherad /Uppsala 28 Allium scorodoprasum Møvik, Kristiansand 29 Allium scorodoprasum Slovakia 30 Allium scorodoprasum Tjörn i Bohuslän, Sverige 31 Allium tuberosum “Sibbo” (Swedish heirloom) 32 Allium victorialis 33 Allium victorialis “Røst” 34 Allium wallichii 35 Tulbaghia “Cosmic” 36 Luftløk unknown 37 Luftløk 5-story 38 Luftløk Amish Spreading 39 Luftløk Beito 40 Luftløk Borøya, Tvedestrand 41 Luftløk Egyptian USA 42 Luftløk Grandma Pfeifer USA 43 Luftløk Labråten, Asker 44 Luftløk Lachmanns vei, Oslo 45 Luftløk Landeskogen Tuberkulose Sanatorium, Agder 46 Luftløk Lindesnes Fyr 47 Luftløk Malvik 48 Luftløk Ottawa Canada 49 Luftløk Sandholmen, Dønna 50 Luftløk Sola 51 Luftløk Sunnfjord 52 Luftløk Øyer, Innlandet 53 Luftløk Udøy, Mandal 54 Luftløk Forsand i Lysefjorden, Sandnes 55 Luftløk Varaldsøy, Kvinnherad 56 Luftløk Volga German 57 Luftløk Vollsveien på Jar, Bærum 58 Luftløk Tungenes Fyr, Randaberg 59 Luftløk Øyvind Erland 60 Tricyrtis sp. (toad lily) 61 Aralia cordata 62 Allium x cornutum “St Jansuien, Nederland” 63 Elaeagnus umbellatus 64 Sagittaria latfolia 65 Papaver somniferum Miks
Engelsk tekst nederst I løpet av 17.-19. juli var jeg glad for å kunne returnere gjestfriheten gitt av KVANNs søsterorganisasjon Arche Noah (Austrian Seed Savers) under mine 2 turer dit i 2017 og januar 2020 rett før COVID-en rammet (se https://www.edimentals .com/blog/?s=arche+noah) Dette var i forbindelse med et Erasmus pluss utdanningsprogram der Arche Noah-utdanningen besøker ulike steder i Europa for å lære mer om flerårige grønnsaker og skogshager! Vi besøkte hver av mine 3 hager: The Edible Garden, Væres Venners Felleshagen og Løkhagen Chicago ved NTNU Ringve Botaniske Hagen. Vi fikk selskap av Guri Bugge, Mette Theisen og Judit Fehér fra KVANNs styre (bilde). Ursula Taborsky fra Arche Noah er nest til venstre på bildet fra min spiselige (skogs)hage. English: During 17th-19th July I was happy to be able to return the hospitality given by KVANN’s sister organisation Arche Noah (Austrian Seed Savers) during my 2 trips there in 2017 and January 2020 just before COVID hit (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=arche+noah) This was in connection with an Erasmus plus education program in which Arche Noah education are visiting various places in Europe to learn more about perennial vegetables and forest gardening! We visited each of my 3 gardens: The Edible Garden, Væres Venners Community Garden and the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden. We were joined by Guri Bugge, Mette Theisen and Judit Fehér from KVANN’s board (picture). Ursula Taborsky from Arche Noah is second left in the picture from my Edible (Forest) Garden.
The Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim, Norway contains over 100 Allium species and over 400 different accessions including a collection of old Norwegian onions which I collected across the country with support from the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre and the Norwegian Agricultural Authority. You can safely eat all Alliums and most species have in the past been wild foraged. A few do have an unpleasant taste, but most are good to eat including some of the best-known ornamental onions, some of the best edimentals (combined food and beauty) and edi-ento-mentals: also a very popular genus for pollinators like bumble bees. Members of KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) in Norway can order most of the Alliums grown in the garden each autumn (please support us by becoming a member at https://kvann.no/bli-med) These are the 40 main Alliums I talk about, in order of appearance: Allium cernuum (nodding onion; Chicago onion; prærieløk) Allium cernuum “Alan Kapuler”(nodding onion; Chicago onion; prærieløk) Allium canadense Allium fistulosum (rooftop onion; takløk from the Gudbrandsdalen valley) a) From Søre Kleivmellomsæter, Mysusæter in Rondane at 885m asl b) From Nordre Geitsida, Sel municipality Allium cyathophorum var. cyathophorum Allium hymenorhizum Allium insubricum Allium validum (Pacific or swamp onion from California) Allium scorodoprasum (sand leek; bendelløk – garlic derives from old norse geirlauk meaning spear onion as demonstrated) Allium tricoccum (ramps) Allium caeruleum “Bulbilliferous form” Allium wallichii (Sherpa or Nepal onion) Allium senescens (Siberian onion) Allium fistulosum (Welsh onion; pipeløk) from Skedsmokorset, Akershus Allium sativum (hardneck / serpent garlic; slangehvitløk) Allium victorialis “Cantabrica” from northern Spain (Victory onion; seiersløk) Allium victorialis “Røst, Norway” from the island in the Lofoten Islands in Norway (Victory onion; seiersløk) Allium x proliferum “Catawissa onion” (topset, Egyptian or walking onions; luftløk, etasjeløk) Allium pskemense (tower onion; tårnløk) Allium pskemense x fistulosum “Wietse’s onion” Allium ochotense from Japan (earlier Allium victorialis) Allium carolinianum Allium moly (golden garlic, lily leek; gull-løk) Allium caesium Allium schoenoprasum (chives; gressløk) – deadheaded Allium douglasii (Douglas’ onion; Douglasløk) Allium cernuum “Dwarf White” (nodding onion; Chicago onion; prærieløk) Allium prattii x ovalifolium? (Chinese hybrid) Allium galanthum Allium rotundum Allium schoenoprasum subsp. sibiricum “Hokkaido” – later flowering than other chives Allium ovalifolium var. leuconeurum Allium flavum subsp. flavum var. minus (small yellow onion; doggløk) Allium ramosum Allium stipitatum (Persian shallots; Persisk sjalott) Allium maximowiczii var shibutsuense f. album Allium victorialis “Landegode, Nordland, Norway” (Victory onion; seiersløk) Allium nutans “Lena” (Siberian nodding onion; Sibirsk nikkeløk) Allum lenkoranicum
A new video on my youtube channel, the wonderfully exclusive SNOW ONION from the China and the Himalaya https://youtu.be/5mOcQ4aUQVI We’re back in the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim, Norway on 10th May and the first Allium is in flower. It’s Allium humile, known as the snow onion (snøløk) and one of my favourites and one of the world’s most exclusive foods, known from the ethnobotanical literature to be wild collected both in Kashmir, where it has also been domesticated in kitchen gardens and sold in markets, and in the northernmost Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Before you ask, I have no idea where you can get hold of seed or plants – my plants are sterile (no seed) – an exceptionally rare edimental (the garden website is here https://www.ntnu.edu/museum/the-onion-garden)
Thanks everyone for all the birthday greetings! I spent my 69th by visiting the Onion Garden Chicago that I look after at the Ringve Botanical Garden, worked for an hour and harvested leaves from 69 different Alliums as one does, surprised my daughter by meeting her off the bus from Oslo and then had a lovely evening with Mac 69 Onion Cheese with Hablitzia tamnoides washed down with a few glasses, my first birthday as a Norwegian citizen 🙂
Wietse’s onion (Allium pskemense x fistulosum) is already huge!Beautiful Allium moly shoots!
The 5th Permaveggies / Forest Gardening course I’ve held in Malvik took place on Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd May with guest Jen McConachie who gave her forest gardening course at Presthus Farm on the Monday evening. On the Sunday we met at my garden (The Edible Garden) for a garden tour and lunch from the garden with focus this year on growing food while maintaining a high biodiversity. On Monday we visited The Væres Venner Community garden to see the World Garden and also the large collection of edible trees and bushes that have been planted there, followed by a visit to the Onion Garden at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim. Previous Permaveggies weekends were held in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2019 whilst the 2020-weekend had to be cancelled because of Covid. More information on previous courses can be found here: Previous Permaveggies Courses. I didn’t take many pictures this year, so thanks to Meg Anderson, Jen McConachie and Mark Tacker who took the pictures below. Malvik:
With Jen McConachie
Talkijg about Hosta
Talking Hablitzia
The Hablitzia / Heracleum community that has evolved over the years – the Heracleum sowed itself here and the Hablitzia now uses it as a support
Talking about udo (Aralia cordata)
Lunch with many perennial vegetables
Meg tells us about lunch
In the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden:
After Jen’s forest garden course, the participants split into groups to design a forest garden in a field next to the farm which it is planned to be developed as a forest garden (get in touch if you are interested!). Here is one of the groups presenting their plans:
In recent years, vegetable growers have started to open their eyes to perennial vegetables and quite a few are growing several types. Many more growers are curious and interested, but haven’t got started yet.
Now you can download the report put together by Eva Johansson, Annevi Sjöberg and Johanna Karlén through visits and interviews with growers of perennial vegetables all over the Nordics, including my 3 gardens in Trondheim / Malvik in June.
The long delayed (by COVID) opening of the Onion Garden Chicago took place at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim on Friday. Here we grow over 400 different Alliums including over 100 botanical species and some 60 old (with a history from 60-980 years; yes the oldest history goes back to 1040!) Norwegian onions. To officially open the garden, Elise Moltzau Wanderås from the Norwegian Agricultural Authority (LDir) was given Felco garden shears to clip Allium pskemense flowering stems and our new sign was simultaneously revealed (received the day before)!
Thanks to all that donated onions to the collection in my project (2008-2016) funded by the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre and LDir, to Vibekke Vange and the staff at Ringve who gave me the chance and support to create this garden and make a dream come true, to volunteer Kim Wallace, daughter Hazel and Meg Anderson for help maintaining the garden! Thanks also to KVANN (kvann.no) for support for purchasing seed and bulbs for the garden and support for sending plant material from the garden to members each autumn!
Notice that we used an Alliophone (Allium microphone) under the event (patented by Søren Holt of Danish Seed Savers some years ago!):
See over 550 pictures from the garden in my big album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156846106840860 Talking abour Allium pskemense with alliophone in hand!A good crowd of some 50 had found their way to Ringve on a lovely warm evening
I don’t often post here about my other two gardens, the community garden at Væres Venner and the Onion Garden Chicago at the Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim. The onion garden is nicely maturing and will be officially opened this summer on 26th August, 6 years since I started work creating a garden to house a national collection of old Norwegian perennial vegetable onions collected throughout the country, some 100 botanical species from around the world and many cultivars too! Here’s a couple of videos showing the garden on 25th June 2023 close to peak flowering, although there will be flowering Alliums all the way from May to the first heavy frosts in October / November! Tasty, beautiful and a great place to study pollinators! Can you smell it? There are now over 500 pictures from the garden in this large Facebook album
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
English: During 17th-19th July I was happy to be able to return the hospitality given by KVANN’s sister organisation Arche Noah (Austrian Seed Savers) during my 2 trips there in 2017 and January 2020 just before COVID hit (see https://www.edimentals.com/blog/?s=arche+noah)
The long delayed (by COVID) opening of the Onion Garden Chicago took place at the Ringve Botanical Gardens in Trondheim on Friday. Here we grow over 400 different Alliums including over 100 botanical species and some 60 old (with a history from 60-980 years; yes the oldest history goes back to 1040!) Norwegian onions. 
(patented by Søren Holt of Danish Seed Savers some years ago!):
