Has anyone left an onion to flower?

Are they worth leaving? I have a few onions that didn't really bother to be onions, and seem to have chosen to be flowers instead. I don't mind, that's life. They haven't opened their flowers yet. Am I likely to be impressed when they do?

 

I think they look like white aliums?

 

Not onions (the big boys) but definitely Spring onions and they did make for a pretty picture (and grew mahoosive!)

Take photo's when they flower and post them up

 

You can keep seed (provided they were not F1 Onions), but only those that flower in second year - as I think that any that bolt and flower in first year might produce seed that is also more inclined to bolt.

 

When I think about it, they might actually be last year's onions. I remember I had some that were struggling, but I left them because they weren't in the way. I don't remember planting any in the same location this year. I don't even think its the onion's fault that they've struggled. They're in about the worst location, under the canopy of next door's tree, and in a patch of soil that I didn't improve (ran out of mushroom compost when I got to that patch).

 

These are the spring onions I transplanted into a corner of the copse (taken in July 2012)



And here is a closer view of the one which curved its way back into flower (See the size of the base of that stem!)



I liked their white pompoms

 

And, purely for contrast, this is the same area this afternoon:



The spring onions have gone, potatoes have sprung up instead. That little spikey leaf effort has turned into a large yellow iris (and I didn't even plant it!) and the Bowles Mauve has spread to a great display. Of the three lupins I planted last year, only one returned.

 

Onion flowers make a great sculptural display, as do leeks. Leek seeds can easily be saved and germinate really well for your next year's crop.

 

As "M" said spring onion flowers can be huge. Here is one that is flowering now, comparing it with with rock rose flowers around it, you may get a feeling of its size. It definitely looks like a white allium.

 

Never done it, but often intended to: transplant the odd few left over / weedy leek plants at the end of the season into the ornamental part of the garden to clear the way for the next crop.