Allium albopilosum

Though yesterday I posted some photos of Aster simplex growing on a roadside in Virginia, I'm not quite done with Blithewold, up north in Rhode Island.  Here's a small bed in the display gardens. with a lovely Agave serving as focal point and anchor for the blue-toned plants surrounding it, including kale and marjoram, to name a few.

 

And perhaps most striking are the Allium albopilosum, or Star of Persia, in front of the Agave.  Like giant onion and chives, the flower on this onion consists of a round ball of smaller individual flowers.  Another name for this species is christophii, though albopilosum refers to the small white hairs that surround the flowers.

 

These flowers dry fairly well - I've encountered them rolling through gardens in early fall, looking a bit like fancy tumbleweeds.  Like the other Alliums this plant is a bulb that can be planted in autumn.

 

I thought it was also worth posting a photo of the detail above.  Corten steel beams shape the bed and the grass risers.  It was a surprise to see such contemporary vocabulary in a garden that is otherwise quite traditional.