Hi, are you still looking for Egyption Walking onions? I only have 5 bulbs left of the ex-large walking onions. The ground is really frozen here so I cannot dig for the plants. If you are still interested, would like to trade for your l-itoi onions. I posted in the allium section some pics of them, just not sure under what posting it was. I believe I was asking if it was a true Egyption onion or a shallot. But they are larger than any I have ever seen before. Thanks

Hi all - I am presuming, from reading above, that Catawissa and the green "walking" onion are the same thing. Are they also the small pickling onions, or am I getting things mixed up? If anybody's got some that they don't mind sending my way, I live on the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada. I have had some live plants sent to me just loose in a box from a friend in the U.S. who apparently didn't understand the restrictions on mailing living organisms, and apparently the customs people don't check everything they come across. Even though the box was damaged (severely), the little iris bulbs and two varieties of a suculant (very common - I just can't recall the name right now - mine are purple and white) all survived the trip and the dark! Anyway, if you're in Canada yourself it would probabaly make things easier, but if you're an American who is up for an experiment with the postal system and some onion bulbs, then please contact me and I'll send along my address. Thanks, - Kenn / faerie

Geezer, shallots are, at base, specialized multiplying onions. As such, you can use them wherever onions are called for; or when you want a mild oniony addition to something. In addition to everything else, you can make a great topping with them. Slice into rings. Saute them in very little oil well past the coloring stage. They will turn brown and crispy. Drain these crisps and use them to top salads, casseroles, etc. As to removing the seed stalks. The ones I clipped developed fair to middling bulbs. But they didn't seem to keep well, even though I had trimmed the stalks. I only grew the Sharon's Shallot two years. By me it was more trouble than it was worth. They seem to prefer dryer conditions---in Colorado, where they come from, the bulbs grow as much as 4" but even the best of mine didn't go more than about 1 1/2". Nor did mine color up as intensely. They're supposed to have orange scales, but mine were pretty much straw colored, with just a hint of orange.

Bon, They might be fine. With onions you just never know. My onions have no mulch on them this year and I don't intend to mulch until and if this infernal rain stops falling. I need for the soil to be able to dry up as much as possible in between rainstorms or in between rainy days. My usual heavy mulch strategy is on hold for some areas of the garden because the soil is far too wet as it is and I don't want for mulch to prevent it from achieving whatever little bit of drying out it can get between storms. I think one reason I have so many lovely volunteer plants this year is because the onion bed is not mulched. From that bed, I have dug up and moved hundreds of Laura Bush petunia seedlings, hundreds of moss rose seedlings, and dozens of catnip, basil, lemon basil, and chamomile seedlings. That onion bed is the gift that just keeps giving, and I didn't even use all the seedlings I dug up. A lot of them got pulled up and composted. It is relatively weed free and volunteer free now, but I weed it every single day that rain doesn't keep me out of the garden like it is doing today. I see good onion plant great, nice leaf development and happy plants, but even well-amended clay in raised beds can stay too wet if the rain falls several days a week like it has been falling lately. I'd have it mulched if I could, but that would almost guarantee the onions will rot. So, you know, even though you're drier than we are, the lack of mulch might not be hurting the onions as long as you keep them well-weeded. More so than most plants, onions cannot abide competition, so keeping them weed-free helps produce bigger, healthier onions. I have the pathways mulched to prevent soil splash and its related diseases. I have the tomato beds, the rows of sweet corn and the bean beds mulched to prevent soil splash and related diseases. I have the flowers mulched. The onions, though? If they are to survive, they must remain unmulched. Including the rain that has fallen on my garden today, we're approaching year-to-date rainfall of 14". It sounds good, no? Well, actually, no. That much rainfall this early hurts as much as or more than it helps. I'm not panicking yet, but after looking at my forecast for the next week, I am starting to think the back garden will not get planted because it is going to stay too muddy too late in the season. More and more this year's rainfall reminds me of 2007---when I still had tomato and pepper plants in containers in May and June because I couldn't put them in the ground.....and the plants in the ground were waterlogged and growth was stalled and some were dying. I ended up planting a lot in cat litter buckets and 5 gallon buckets that year because there was no other way to do it. Peppers are perfectly happy in cat litter buckets, but indeterminate tomato plants in 5 to 7 gallon pots require an incredible amount of water and fertilizer to stay happy even when the ground is too wet for them. 2007 was a horrible weather year. While 2014 started out kind of wonderful, the longer the rain falls, the more likely we see a repeat of 2007, or even 2004. While 2004 was great overall, the spring was far too wet with over a foot of rain in one month. I want rain and I appreciate getting it, but we're at the point that it is too much at once. I don't even remember what my onions did in 2004 or 2007 but I think they struggled and some bolted and some died. I always plant tons of them to allow for some to drown, burn up in drought, or be pounded into oblivion and our crazy weather is why I do that. I wish we could send all this excess moisture over to SW OK, particularly to the Altus and Duncan areas. Their lakes would love all the water runoff we are having here.