I've started to get interested in Egyptian Onions (after i read about them in a book) and i have a few questions. 1. Are they Edible or are they just decorative? 2. Once an onion flower drops will it sprout? 3. Where can i buy one(i've looked at Wal-mart, Home Depot, and Ace)?
1) The entire onion is edible. We mostly use the green hollow leaves in late winter & spring in salads and as a substitute for green onions and chives. You can also eat the bulb part, but of course that destroys the plant. We find that if you cut off the 'flowering' stems and leaves down to soil level in mid-summer, new leaves will sprout. Otherwise, there's not much to eat after about July. 2) I don't think it has much of a flower. Little bulblets form on the top of the stem where the flower should be. These grow until the weight of them cause the stem to bend or snap. When the cluster of bulblets touches the soil roots start to grow, forming a new clump away from the mother plant. In this way the onion can move around your garden, which leads to its other name: walking onion. 3) I've noticed bulblets for sale in catalogues, but have never seen Egyptian onion in a nursery. Most people get it from friends. Perhaps try the spring plant sale of your local garden club.
Hi Chiko, You could do a search at www.google.com and use the term: Egyptian onion + retail Egyptian onion + mail order Check references here. http://davesgarden.com/gwd/ Newt
