Best Alliums for Heirloom
26 allium varieties well-suited for heirloom varieties. Open-pollinated heritage cultivars with unique flavor.
Ailsa Craig Sweet Onion
A legendary exhibition onion variety from Scotland that can grow to enormous sizes while maintaining sweet, mild flavor. This pale yellow globe onion is famous for winning competitions and producing bulbs that can weigh 2-3 pounds when grown with proper care. Despite its impressive size, Ailsa Craig maintains excellent eating quality and stores reasonably well.
Bandit
Bandit has beautiful very dark blue-green, upright leaves and good uniformity. The shank grows very thick with minimal bulbing. NOTE: For ease of sowing, Bandit's seed is coated with an inert, NOP-compliant film.
Common Chives
Common Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are a classic perennial herb featuring slender, tubular green leaves that grow in dense clumps and reach 12-18 inches tall. Delicate purple-pink pompom flowers appear in spring, adding ornamental appeal. Ready to harvest at 75-85 days from seed, though established plants provide year-round cutting. This hardy heirloom offers mild, delicate onion flavor with subtle sharpness, making it ideal for finishing dishes, garnishing soups, and creaming into sauces. Unlike stronger alliums, chives complement rather than overpower. Extremely cold-hardy and low-maintenance.
Elephant Garlic
Despite its name, Elephant Garlic is actually more closely related to leeks than true garlic, producing massive bulbs that can weigh up to one pound each. The flavor is much milder and sweeter than regular garlic, making it perfect for roasting whole or for those who want garlic flavor without the bite. Each enormous clove can be as large as a regular garlic bulb.
Evergreen Hardy White
Evergreen Hardy White is an heirloom Allium variety prized for its mild, tender white onions with a delicate flavor less pungent than standard onions. Reaching maturity in approximately 65 days, this cold-hardy cultivar produces elongated white bulbs suitable for fresh eating and cooking. The plant tolerates a wide range of soil conditions and thrives in full sun to partial shade. Its hardiness and ease of cultivation make it an excellent choice for gardeners seeking a versatile, sweet onion option that stores moderately well and brings subtle onion flavor to dishes without overwhelming heat.
Evergreen White Bunching Onion
A hardy perennial scallion variety that lives up to its name by providing fresh green onions year-round in most climates. This vigorous variety forms thick white bases and dark green tops that can be harvested continuously by cutting and allowing to regrow. Perfect for gardeners who want a permanent source of fresh scallions without replanting.
French Gray Shallot
The gourmet cook's dream shallot, prized by French chefs for its complex, wine-like flavor and firm texture that holds up beautifully in cooking. These traditional gray-skinned shallots multiply from single bulbs into clusters of 6-12 bulbs with rose-colored flesh and incredible storage life. Their sophisticated flavor is milder than onions but more complex than garlic.
Garlic Chives
Wide, flat leaves are attractive and easy to harvest. Mild garlic flavor.
German Extra Hardy Garlic
A robust hardneck garlic variety that lives up to its name by surviving the harshest winters while producing large, flavorful bulbs with 4-6 cloves each. This porcelain-type garlic offers excellent storage life and a rich, complex flavor that becomes sweet and nutty when roasted. It's an ideal choice for northern gardeners who want reliable garlic production and the bonus of edible scapes in early summer.
Giant Musselburgh
A legendary Scottish heirloom leek that produces enormous, thick white stems up to 3 inches in diameter and excellent cold hardiness. This impressive variety has been grown since the 1830s and remains a favorite for its mild, sweet flavor and ability to overwinter in harsh climates. Giant Musselburgh is the go-to choice for gardeners wanting impressive leeks for soups and braising.
Inchelium Red Softneck Garlic
An award-winning heirloom softneck garlic from Washington state that's perfect for beginners and delivers exceptional flavor. These large, plump bulbs store for up to 10 months and offer a rich, full-bodied garlic taste that's not overpowering. The most reliable garlic variety for gardeners in warmer climates where hardnecks struggle.
Italian Red Torpedo Onion
An elegant elongated onion with stunning deep red skin and crisp white flesh streaked with purple rings. This intermediate-day variety offers a perfect balance of sweet and sharp flavors that mellows beautifully when cooked. The distinctive torpedo shape and vibrant color make it a standout in both the garden and on the plate.
Japanese Bunching Onions
Japanese bunching onions are delicate, slender green onions that mature in approximately 65 days. Unlike bulbing onions, they form elongated white shanks with tender green tops, making them ideal for both raw and cooked applications. These heirloom varieties are prized for their mild, sweet onion flavor and exceptionally crisp texture. They're a staple in Japanese cuisine, perfect for garnishing dishes, stir-fries, and salads. Their easy growing requirements and continuous harvest potential make them a favorite among home gardeners seeking fresh, flavorful alliums.
King Richard
Beautiful full-sized leeks. In favorable soil and culture, the white shanks are over a foot long to the first leaf. Medium-green leaves with full habit. For baby leeks, plant closely (40 seeds/ft.) and harvest at finger size. While not hardy enough for overwintering, they will withstand medium-heavy frost (32° to 20°F/0° to -7°C) without losing their healthy appearance.
Music Hardneck Garlic
The gold standard of hardneck garlic varieties, prized by both home gardeners and gourmet chefs for its exceptional flavor and reliability. Music produces large, easy-to-peel cloves with a perfect balance of heat and sweetness that intensifies when cooked. This Italian heirloom is incredibly cold-hardy and stores beautifully for 8-10 months.
Purple de Lautrec Shallot
A prestigious French heirloom shallot with protected designation of origin status, prized by chefs worldwide for its complex, wine-like flavor. The elongated bulbs have beautiful purple-tinged skin and develop multiple cloves with incomparable taste. This is the shallot that elevates French cuisine to culinary art.
Purple Top Walla Walla
The sweet, mild onion that made Walla Walla, Washington famous. This beloved heirloom variety produces large, flattened bulbs with purple-tinged skin and crisp white flesh so sweet they can be eaten like apples. Perfect for those who want to grow their own version of this premium market onion.
Purplette
These flavorful specialty onions mature early and hold well. Purplette is a glossy rich burgundy, transforming to a nice pastel pink when cooked or pickled. Can be harvested at golf ball size or very young as baby bunching onions with purple pearl ends. Best at 40° latitude and higher.
Red Burgundy Onion
A stunning deep red storage onion that combines beautiful color with excellent keeping qualities and robust flavor. The dark burgundy skin and purple-tinged white flesh make this variety as ornamental as it is functional in the kitchen. Red Burgundy stores for 6-8 months when properly cured, making it ideal for gardeners who want year-round homegrown onions.
Rossa di Milano
An onion so lovely, it's almost a shame to eat it. Selected by the late Dr. John Navazio under tough organic growing conditions, our 'Rossa di Milano' strain is up to 10 days earlier than others boasting the same name. One of the most thrips-resistant long-day onions in our trials. Bulbs are large to colossal in size and exhibit the true grano shape with distinctly flattened tops. Suited for long storage (6+ months) with thin necks that easily dry down. Strong, bronze-pink skins and great uniformity. An excellent cooking onion, Rossa di Milano contributes an abundance of sweetness and pungency to any cuisine. Your new favorite onion. Can be successfully grown in the northern reaches of the intermediate-day region. Adaptation: 38-50° latitude.
Siberian Garlic
An extremely hardy hardneck garlic variety that survives brutal winters and produces beautiful purple-striped bulbs with complex, robust flavor. This reliable performer sends up dramatic curling scapes in summer and develops 8-12 cloves per bulb with excellent storage life. Siberian is perfect for northern gardeners who want dependable garlic with gourmet flavor and stunning appearance.
Spanish Roja Garlic
A legendary hardneck garlic variety brought to the Pacific Northwest by Spanish immigrants, Spanish Roja offers full-bodied flavor with a satisfying heat that doesn't overpower. Known for its beautiful purple-striped bulb wrappers and reliable performance in cold climates. This is the garlic that made Spokane famous among garlic enthusiasts.
Stuttgart
A classic German heirloom onion prized for its exceptional storage life and reliable performance in cool climates. This flat-topped yellow onion develops firm, dense bulbs with crisp white flesh and a pleasantly sharp flavor that mellows beautifully when cooked. Stuttgart's outstanding keeping quality makes it a favorite among gardeners who want to store their harvest through winter.
Walla Walla Sweet Onion
Juicy, sweet, regional favorite. In the Northwest, which has normal low winter temperatures above -10°F (-23°C), seed is sown in late August, and a crop of very large, flattened, ultra-mild onions is harvested early the next summer. SPRING PLANTING: Walla Walla may be spring planted using seeds or plants in colder regions where winter survival is hit or miss. It is not as big or sweet as the wintered-over crop, but still milder and juicier than others from spring planting. Nice as a "green top" onion. Not for storage. Adaptation: 35-55° latitude. Also offered organic, and as plants.
White Lisbon Bunching Onion
The classic European bunching onion prized for its crisp white stems and mild onion flavor. Perfect for continuous harvesting throughout the growing season, these versatile scallions can be harvested young for tender greens or left to mature for thicker stems. A kitchen garden essential that's incredibly easy to grow.
Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion
A classic long-day onion variety beloved for producing enormous, mild-flavored bulbs that can reach softball size or larger. These golden-skinned beauties are incredibly versatile in the kitchen, sweet enough to eat raw yet substantial enough for cooking. Perfect for northern gardeners who want to grow impressive onions that store well through winter.
Why These Alliums Work for Heirloom
Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated cultivars passed down for generations — prized for complex flavor, storied history, and seed-saving potential. These varieties let you save seeds and grow the same crop next year.