Gardening columnist JACKIE WARBURTON knows her onions – ornamental and edible. 

ORNAMENTAL onions (Allium giganteum) are great for a hot spot in the garden.

They can grow up to 120 centimetres with showy, tall stems and large, purple, globe flowers. By adding colour and height to the garden, a mass planting can be very effective. However, the taller the stem, the more protection from the wind they will need.

Ornamental onions are not edible like their family counterparts in the Allium family, but not to be confused with edible giant elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum), which grows well in Canberra, too.

They are tough, drought resistant, cold tolerant and easy to care for but, as a bulb, they need good drainage, because they easily rot with too much water. 

Once the flowering has finished, remove the spent stem as close to the base as possible and divide the clump now (and any other spring flowering bulbs, too). 

Use a fork and dig around the clump to remove as much of the soil around the bulbs as possible. Once out of the ground, the bulbs can be teased from the clump of soil and replanted.

The colours for other allium species range across blue, pink, red and white. Dwarf varieties are also available. 

All alliums have a pungent garlic smell and are useful to deter animals such as possums from eating plants. 

MANY bulbs can be grown all year round in Canberra and one that provides a fantastic floral display is Hippeastrum, which grows well in pots and small gardens.

Its flowering times are around December in Canberra, which makes it useful for a table or garden display for the festive season. 

Leaves, which appear after the flowers, are long, green and strappy. They like the soil a little acidic, so plant them where camellias grow. Hippeastrum and all amaryllis bulbs don’t like to be planted too deep and like to have their necks out of the soil with the pointy end up. 

From planting, the bulbs take up to six weeks to flower but, if planted in a shady spot, flowering takes a little longer. Keep them moist, not wet over winter and fertilise bulbs while they are growing with a general-purpose bulb fertiliser. 

WITH the good rains there still is moisture in the soil to get more vegetables growing for harvesting after Christmas and into the end of summer. 

The hot months of the year are best for growing, as seedlings, vegetables such as eggplants, capsicums, tomatoes, zucchini and lettuces. 

Sow carrots, broccoli, cabbage and spinach now into punnets with sifted potting mix or worm castings. Sprinkle seed on to the surface of the mix and lightly cover with perlite or even sand. 

Keep the seed moist and out of sunlight until germination, then move to sheltered light to grow. Water gently with a spray bottle. 

Continue to harvest garden produce regularly to increase the yield of tomatoes and zucchinis. Continually harvest spinach and rhubarb leaves to encourage more growth. Spinach and rhubarb are great to freeze when there is a glut in the garden. 

Leave a little space in the vegetable patch for winter-growing vegetables that like to be planted in late summer, early autumn and keep the space weed free and mulched. 

WITH fruit trees now producing, fruit fly can be a problem in the orchard. The flies, attracted to ripe fruit, lay their eggs under the skin of ripening fruit, maggots hatch and feed, spoiling the fruit and causing it to rot and drop. Netting the trees will help prevent this before the fruit is ripe. Fruit fly traps work well and should be hung in the trees now. 

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au