If the strawberry is the undisputed fruit of Wimbledon, the onion has to be its symbolic vegetable. For the allium, otherwise known as the ornamental onion, stands head and shoulders above all other plants in the All England Club’s showcase flower beds.

Everyone loves an allium. The plant – technically a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants that includes the onion, garlic, scallion, shallot and leek as well as chives and hundreds of other wild species – is grown for its showy purple pom-pom flower heads. By happy coincidence, the flowers emerge from their buds at Wimbledon time of year.

Tall, willowy and with quirky visual appeal, they have a look-at-me quality that makes them standout horticultural champions. 

“They are great for the shape they provide in a mixed planting,” says head gardener Martyn Falconer.

“We use them with blue and white Agapanthus to create striking height and vertical lines at the ends of the courts.”

By pure coincidence, the blooms of the type of allium that adorns the All England Club are almost exactly like a tennis ball in size and shape. Each spherical flower head sits on top of its own stalk, which can soar up to over a metre in height from a base of broad-leaved foliage, adding an eye-catching accent of colour.

The plant is also strikingly celebrated in creative form outside the Competitors’ Entrance, where a giant allium wrought in steel and blown glass by contemporary artist blacksmith Jenny Pickford is the centrepiece of a floral feature. Martyn has underplanted the giant sculpture with real alliums to stunning effect.

“It’s a high profile spot,” he explains. “The place where players get their first impression of the Club.”

Elsewhere around the Grounds allium and agapanthus grow side by side. Similar in providing dramatic flower heads that tower above surrounding foliage on single stalks, the two flowers have very different back stories.