A flower-packed dome on a bare stem for that lollipop look. Each tiny, star-shaped flower has petals in shades of lilac or pink with purple or green midribs. Strong, clove-like scent. Blooms in late spring, then goes dormant. The stem may be washed with burgundy.
Henry, the plant sale’s founder, asked an ornamental onion expert, Mark McDonough, which fragrant onion was the best. Mark said that it’s the hard-to-find Allium woronowii.
In its home in the mountains of eastern Turkey and Armenia, this endangered species grows in small, fragmented areas 6,000–7,500 feet above sea level. Plant it in thin, stony, very well-drained soil, and let the soil dry out for summer and fall. Luckily, deer and rabbits do not like onions. See also the wild onions in Native Perennials and Onion, Ornamental in Perennials.