permaculture

["Kelly Finigan" <kfinigan@telus.net>]

Robert:

yes, move the chives more to the front - really pretty when they flower!

common names...arrgh! my apology.

'nodding onion'  (Allium cernuum) - about the height of chives, star shaped
clusters of white/cream flowers that "nod" or hang slightly from the top of
the leaves. It is a native shortgrass prairie plant.
'Egyptian onion ' (Allium cepa proliferum) - this is what I called a "tree
onion"; small bulblets at the top...
hollyhock (Alcea rosea) - leaves are edible but coarse and bristly, flowers
are good...as Jerome indicated, the buds are sometimes pickled as "false
capers"...
mallow [sometimes called hollyhock] - (Malva alcea) - leaves mild and ok,
flowers mild but good...

the best source I have found for plant info is the Plants for a Future
Database established by Ken Fern of England. online, it's found at
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html

you can search about 7000 (I think) plants by Latin or common name or do
searches for fibre, food, dye, tea or other uses you want...its great!

ciao,
Kelly

PS I just remembered another two favourite pretty plants of mine...the
Saskatoon / Serviceberry / Shadblow (Amelanchier species) - bushes with nice
white flowers, yummy bluish berries that people and birds love...and the
lupine - insectary and nitrogen fixer...apparently there is a variety that
is not toxic (I think Oregon Exotics nursery may sell the seed)...


Kelly Finigan, M.Sc. P.Eng., Permaculture Designer
Essential Elements Inc.
744 - 4 Street NW       Calgary, Alberta, Canada         T2N 1P2
1-403-283-7270           fax 283-9783     kfinigan@telus.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Waldrop" <rmwj@soonernet.com>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 10:05 AM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Where are you from?


> Thanks for the suggestions.  I think most of them would grow here
> except for maybe the wild strawberries.  I've been growing borage and
> several kinds of chives. My chives, however, have tended to be back
> behind other things and thus not really visible, your post makes me
> think I should move them around a bit, which I've been meaning to do.
>
> I wonder if the nodding onion is what we call an egyptian or walking
> onion, makes tall fleshy stalks which I pick for green onions, then a
> cluster of little bulblets forms at the top, as it ripens it falls
> over and voila, a new cluster of plants.  I don't know what tree
> onions are, however.
>
> And how do you eat the hollyhocks?
>
> Robert Waldrop, OKc
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kelly Finigan <kfinigan@telus.net>
> >hollyhock & other mallows - big showy, various colors; edible
> >runner beans - bright red flowers on climber
> >violets & pansies - mostly purple and yellows; edible leaves and
> flowers
> >chives, garlic chives, nodding onion, tree onions etc - all edible
> with
> >interesting flower heads;
> >
> >I also think asparagus and rhubarb are pretty plants...but maybe
> that's just
> >me! And then there's comfrey - donkey ear leaves with tall flower
> >spikes...but once you plant it, its yours forever...
> >
> >ciao,
> >Kelly
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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