onion flowers

I recently picked up these fresh flowers while grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I often pick up unusual flowers and have even used charming greens from the produce area on my kitchen counter! I had never seen these before and was so excited to get them home and in a vase...

Aren't they precious?

Well, when I was cutting the stems to put them in the vase, I noticed an onion smell... but that's not all. My eyes began to water! These flowers were in the flower department, not the produce department... I didn't really care if they were onions, they were so pretty, but I was curious. I hadn't noticed the smell until I cut the stems... Would the smell be noticeable for long?

I looked on the tag to see if they were in fact onions... flowering onions? The tag read: FLOWERING ALLIUM GLADIATOR 

I thought that sounded familiar and promptly googled images for flowering allium gladiator. Hundreds of images popped up...

Oh yes, now I remembered the name... I love these things! So charming... but not at all what I had on my counter, and I bet they don't smell like onions! I continued searching images. Next, I found these...

In the first image, the flowers seemed somewhat similar, but my onion flowers weren't globe shaped. In the second image, I thought it looked like the little bulb shapes might open up to look like my onion flowers, similar lavender color... I checked the name.... allium garlic. GARLIC! Oh dear. 

It wasn't long before my husband noticed the smell. Then my kids noticed the smell. Needless to say, the flowering allium gladiators (aka onion flowers) didn't last long on my kitchen counter.

I'm not sure if there was a mix up at Whole Foods, or what the deal was. The flowers I brought home clearly weren't flowering allium gladiators as labeled. They were quite charming, but the onion smell (or maybe it was garlic) was just too much, even in the kitchen!

Next time I choose an unusual or unfamiliar flower, there will be a sniff test involved before purchasing...

Here's what replaced the onion flowers... Matsumoto Aster

They don't smell like onions!!