To be honest, they didn’t look like much when Lee gave them to us, but now, perhaps a year later the potato onions have formed two big clumps and the walking onions have ‘walked’ into two new clumps.
I presume that this autumn, or just later in the summer, we can dig up the potato onions, split them up and next spring replant as seperate bulbs. Probably not enough to eat yet, but we will be able to give Lee back a decent clump for his land.
The walking onions are less prolific but more interesting. A small bulb forms at the top of the onion, which eventually is heavy enough to bend the leaf down. Where it touches the floor it roots and then grows a new clump of onions. So, they ‘walk’ around the garden – amazing.
The ‘Walking Onions’ are fascinating aren’t they? A few years back, I was wwoofing in Southern France, and Pascal the owner, gave me some to bring back home. For some reason they never grew back here though.
I planted what were supposed to be “potato” onions last fall, and, indeed, they are bunching like shallots. It is too early for harvest. But. My question is: they are sending up flowers. I thought that this type of onion did not flower. Did I get something other than multiplier onions? Should I cut off the flowering scape? Should I eat it? I’d love to have an answer. Thanks.