Last spring I never got round to pulling up the last of the winter
leeks. They put up flowers. For months this summer, they have been
magnificent strong 4ft-high stems with huge globular purple flowers; so
handsome and attractive (to people and insects) that I'm going to do
the same next year.

I've been waiting for the seeds to ripen, which they're not yet.
Meanwhile, on just one or two of the seed-heads, something odd has
happened. From the place in the middle where the individual
flower-stalks grow out of, lots of little green sprouts have emerged,
several inches long; at the base of each stem is a tiny round green bulb
like a baby onion. They're firmly attached to the parent.

If these are germinated seeds, why are they not attached to the
flower-end of the stalk where the seeds form? Why do they look like
minute onions not straight and narrow like seedling leeks?

I picked off a few of these green babies, shoved them into the soil and
they're growing away happily. Will they overwinter successfully, to be
leeks next year?

Janet.