Michigan Alliums

Allium, the ornamental onion, is one of spring’s great architectural flowers: dozens of tiny star-shaped florets packed into a clean sphere that floats on a tall, leafless stem. The effect is bold and graphic, a purple or silver globe hovering above everything else in the arrangement, and it reads beautifully in both airy garden-style designs and modern minimal ones. Alliums also earn their keep in the vase, holding a striking form for a week or more of fresh life, and the seed heads dry so well that a single stem can carry a bouquet from spring into the months that follow.

A relative of the onion and garlic we grow to eat, allium belongs to the genus Allium and grows here from a bulb planted in the fall. Michigan’s cold winters are a genuine advantage, since the bulb needs a long stretch of chilling underground to set a strong bloom, and our member farmers tuck them in before the ground freezes for spheres that open in late spring and early summer. The same pungent chemistry that flavors the kitchen also makes allium reliably deer-resistant, a quality MSU Extension lists among its favorite critter-proof, spring-flowering bulbs, so our fields deliver full, unbrowsed stems season after season. Learn more from MSU Extension.

Because our member farmers cut allium at peak here in Michigan rather than shipping it in from far away, you get stems with the sturdiest stalks and the longest vase life, harvested days fresh instead of weeks old. Reserve a DIY bucket and request allium alongside the spring flowers you love, then build the arrangements yourself, or let our design team fold those sculptural globes into wedding and event work where a little architecture goes a long way.