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Dried & Pressed Flowers

Drying Allium Flowers

16 years ago

Do the flower heads of the Allium family dry well? Also, after Alliums such as Allium spaerocephalom are done blooming, do you dig them up and separate the cloves bulblets and are they worth eating like you do garlics of the softneck varities and such?

Comments (2)

neil_allen
16 years ago
They do dry fairly well.

We concentrate on A. sphaerocephalum and A. caeruleum/azureum.

You can pick them when the heads are very tight but show color or when they're just starting to open. I think the best setup for drying is a horizontal screen of hardware cloth, but you can also hang them upside down.

Chives are also good, but pick them before they start to open, when the buds are large but there's still a purple "skin" over the flowers just beginning to split and let the blooms out -- they will open as they dry.

A. schuberti is very striking when dry, but it's difficult to use in mised bouquets. It's easiest to just let it dry in the field. No color, just a nice weird form.

A. "Hair" is another weird one, not to everyone's taste; we treat it like A. spaerocephalum.

We don't dig the bulbs up, have never tried eating them. I replant A. caeruleum every year, since they tend to behave like annuals. A. sphaerocephalum seems to need replanting every 2-3 years. A. "Hair" self-seeds -- not to the point of despair, but don't get started on it if you think there may come a time when you couldn't stand to see another one.

There are more that I'll probably try in future years, including regular onions.
neil_allen
16 years ago
When I mentioned a horizontal hardware cloth screen, I'm talking about putting the stems through the holes in the hardware cloth so the heads are supported and the stems are hanging down in free air. They seem to dry faster this way, and it saves the time spent bunching them and hanging them upside down. The disadvantage is the time spent putting some kind of drying screen together if you don't have one already.
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