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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Yorktown Onions

This afternoon my sweet husband and I took a drive along the Colonial Parkway to see the onions. What a splendid show there was! The onion pictures are done in a table instead of a collage so you could enlarge each separately. In addition to the Yorktown sign at the top and the Lady Victory at the end, I included a groundhog with a bunch of Canada Geese in the middle of one of the battlefields. There is also one of a guy out into the York River a good way, fishing. He was out there a good way. Enjoy the onion photos. Sorry for the multiple tries at getting this posted, I was so concerned about getting the photos up that I didn't check my words too closely. (Also tried to publish within Microsoft Word which didn't work either, ah...another learning experience.)




Here is a link to the first posting I did about Yorktown Onions and here is a link to the county fact sheet with a little history about the onion. For those who are not familiar with these Alliums, check out the fact sheet.

21 comments:

  1. I am also Janet, and gardening in VA, but in Chincoteague!

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  2. Well, hi Janet, nice to meet you. Come back again.

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  3. Janet, when you said "onions" I thought, "What's the big deal with onions?" I was really curious! But when I saw your photos, I see it's Alliums! LOL! We saw so many of those in Chicago, and I have some in my own garden. Aren't they glorious? I love your photos of these and how they're scattered everywhere. Very cool!

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  4. Hi Janet! Thanks for the pictures! I love onions and especially onions in bloom! I am experimenting with Picasa trying to make pictures larger. So far, not so good. They say that on Blogger, vertical pitures look better than horizontal when enlarged. Are you on Blogger or Wordpress?

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  5. Those are really cool onions. I remember you posting that they are found only in that area? I love the meadow picture of them. What a sweet hubby to drive you around to see these blooms. They do look fabulous in the amongst the grass.

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  6. How gorgeous Janet. It's making me homesick. I had a brother who lived in Hampton (when he was stationed at Ft Monroe) and we would visit often. It's beautiful there and the onions make it even more so. I sure miss living around all that water.

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  7. I am glad I know the context of this post. If anyone else had said " I took a drive to see the onions" I would wonder what the heck they were talking about. My Elephant Garlic that was supposed to be a Yorktown Onion is in full bloom now, but nearly as pretty. I enjoyed your tour.

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  8. Hi Kylee, I guess I should have clarified a bit for those who had no read anything about Yorktown Onions prior to this post. I will add a link to the fact sheet about our special onions. Glad you enjoyed them.
    Good morning Tatyana, These onions being 'wild' and a protected species makes it fun to see them in bloom. I am on Blogger and use Picasa to upload my photos from the web (not from the program on the computer that you can use..I think that makes it smaller by default)
    Hello Tina, it is really cool to see meadows full of these onions. It is hard to stop just anywhere along the Colonial Parkway, as we drove by I would see areas that were so full, then when we parked I walked back to where I thought they were, sometimes finding them. He is a sweetie that is for sure.
    Hi Les, I will put a link to the fact sheet from the onion and a backlink to the first post I did about the onions, hope that helps. Glad you enjoyed the tour.

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  9. Hi Kathleen, This area is really special, lots of waterways. My sweet husband and I were married at Fort Monroe, what a beautiful post that is getting closed because of the BRAC (base realignment commission). Still hoping it will be a National Park instead of condos.

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  10. Oh my Janet they really did put on a show. How wonderful to brighten up your drive. I need to put some in my garden someday.

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  11. Wow, they look wonderful. I have to get up there sometime. :)

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  12. Hi Linda, The Onions are really fun to see this time of year. I plan on having some in South Carolina.
    Racquel, you do need to take a drive along the parkway. It is so pretty.

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  13. Okay, so you can eat these? Not that people do, since they're protected, but you could? They look like the alliums we grow in our gardens (like 'Gladiator'). Most alliums have similar characteristics with differences mainly in size. I've never heard of these, so I'm really glad you posted on these! Very, very cool!

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  14. Hi Kylee, There is a bulb that this Allium grows from, similar to an onion that we eat. I am not sure about whether these are edible, I kind of think not, I believe it is only ornamental. This variety is particular to Yorktown and we get excited when they are in bloom. Glad you like them.

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  15. I love them Janet and after seeing the giant alliums all over Chicago...I am wanting more in my garden! They look lovely scattered in the fields. Thanks for the links to get more on their history...gail

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  16. Gail, the May/ June (I think) issue of Fine Gardening has a planting guide of Allium so you can have blooms throughout the season, I have my eye on that!!! the meadow of Allium is really fun.

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  17. Janet,

    Very cool onions, never seen these before. Was reading on Saturday night about Egyptian Walking Onions and on Sunday I found some local walking onions. They produce onion sets in the flower and drop to the ground to plant them, hence walking.

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  18. This a so fun to see them growing. I had not heard of this so will search the post and read about it. Love how they look.

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  19. Hi Randy, Yes I have seen the Egyptian Walking Onions, interesting plant. Like how it bends over to 'walk'.
    Anna, hi -- these are wildly sown Allium and are all over along the Colonial Parkway in Yorktown.

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  20. We were there last year and loved seeing the onions.

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  21. We visited Yorktown last year and loved seeing the onions. They are lovely, thanks for posting your pics.

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