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The Allium christophii seed heads pictured here are held motionless in the thinnest coating of frost. On a freezing winter morning the tiny seed pods, and the remains of the flowers behind them, gleam softly in the early sun.
It has just occurred to me that it’s unusual for a seed head to retain the remains of the flower like this. The petals have lost their colour and their edges have curled inwards. They’ve shrunk a little as they’ve dried too, but those petals are still there. Now they are little icy stars.
You can see what those stars looked like while the flower was still alive:
The living flowers are lilac, with a delicate metallic sheen. Already the green seed pods are forming in the centre of each individual floret. If you look closely you’ll see that there’s also an inner ring of filaments. (These are the lower part of the stamens, which would have held the anthers.) Their tapered, almost spiky, appearance makes them look like another set of much smaller petals.
Now my imagination is playing with the idea of having the ‘ghosts’ of the year’s flowers sprinkled throughout the garden. For company, the alliums would have hydrangeas (as in last week’s post) and perhaps, if there were any late flowers, astrantias. (But in both of these plants, what look like petals are not. The hydrangea has minute flowers surrounded by showy sepals and the astrantia has large bracts around a tiny pincushion-like arrangement of true flowers. Perhaps that is why they keep their flowery appearance for longer.)
Hmm, I wonder if a slightly spooky winter garden would be fun… 🙂
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
Some of the formations in the frosted versions look like spiders.
When I first saw your title, rather than Allium I seemed to see Aluminium (of Aluminum, as Americans say).
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Well, the live flowers do have a metallic look – a bit like anodised aluminium! Like you, I often see the frosted flowers as being like spiders…very cold ones. 🙂
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These seed heads have a geometrical pattern of lines!
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Yes – nature’s geometry is a big help to photographers! 🙂
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I didn’t realize that ‘aluminium’ was an alternate pronunciation. I’ve heard it from time to time, but always thought someone was making a little joke. This is quite an attractive flower, both in bloom and ‘frosted.’ I’d never seen an Allium like it, but after not finding it in the USDA or BONAP sites, I decided it must be a cultivar. I do like its ‘star-iness.’ A whole garden filled with such species would be delightful in winter.
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I hadn’t actually realised that they were spelt differently and had thought it was just a difference in pronunciation too. 🙂 ‘Christophii’ is a popular allium here and the allium that I like best, although there are others that really appeal to me too…maybe I should be growing more!
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It’s wonderful to see and compare the different stages of the same flower, thank you for providing the comparison.
Maybe you can come up for a design for your ghostly garden and show us the results next winter. 😊
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I’ll need to find some suitable ‘ghosts’ if I do try it…sounds like an excuse for plant-shopping!
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Have fun! 🙂
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Always found alliums fascinating, like sputniks. It might be an interesting idea to create a spooky ghost garden though Halloween is a bit too soon for the best wintry effects.
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There are some fun allium seed heads with quite wild shapes! Yes, Halloween is a bit too early – these would have to be winter ghosts.
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