Join Nature Notes Sunday at 12:00 am EST to Friday at 11:00 pm EST. More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link back to nature notes in some way.

It was a little more comfortable this week and not so much like the tropics so there was gardening work to be done which I had to watch from the porch… One of my favorite plants is blooming…Nodding Onion….

nodding onion

Nodding Onion is stunning to have in gardens because of its unique flowers. A ball of star-like flowers forms on each stem, tending to bend downward; hence the name “nodding” onion.  The nodding habit may also protect the nectar from rain.

Native American tribes used the bulbs of Nodding Onion as a treatment for croup, colic, colds and fevers.  Allium cernuum blooms in midsummer, and the flowers are pollinated by small short-tongued bees, such as Halictid bees.  Nodding Onion, like all the Allium species, is deer-resistant.

Allium cernuum grows best in full or partial sun, and moist to medium conditions.  It tends to spread by seed and bulb offshoots.  The flowers are almost white to shades of purple in color and mature plants can reach up to 18″ in height.  This plant is easy to grow, and will spread gradually under suitable conditions.

Nature walks are wonderful. But you don’t have to travel to special location to enjoy Mother Nature. There is so much to see in your own neighborhood or even in your own back or front yard. Get a guide-book of the wildlife in your area and learn the calls of birds and frogs and toads. So many times I hear a bird that lets me know what I am looking for in the trees.