Italian Red of Florence is a bunching onion that brings both ornamental charm and culinary utility to the garden. Unlike traditional bulbing onions, this variety grows as tender scallions with distinctive red-tinged foliage, ready to harvest in just 60 days. Hardy across zones 3 to 10, it thrives in full sun with moderate water and moderate fertility, making it reliable for gardeners at nearly any latitude. Successive sowings every two to four weeks ensure a continuous supply of fresh bunching onions from spring through fall.
Full Sun
Moderate
3-10
?in H x ?in W
—
High
Hover over chart points for details
Red-colored foliage sets this bunching onion apart visually from the standard green varieties found in most gardens. Reaching harvestable size in 60 days, it transitions from seed to table faster than many other onion types. The ability to sow in succession means you can plant every few weeks for an unbroken harvest window rather than a single flush, and in mild climates, fall sowings will produce a spring crop. This variety handles cold well, remaining frost-hardy and dependable even in zone 3.
Italian Red of Florence is harvested as a tender bunching onion, where the entire plant from white base to red-tinged green tops is edible and used fresh. The mild onion flavor makes it well-suited to raw applications, sliced into salads, scattered over soups as garnish, or eaten fresh as part of a crudités platter. Cooked gently, the bulbous white base becomes sweet while the colored tops remain tender, making this variety useful in stir-fries, pasta dishes, and as a finishing element on roasted vegetables.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your average last frost date. Transplant seedlings outdoors 4 to 6 weeks before your average last frost date, giving them time to establish before warm weather arrives.
Harden off indoor-started seedlings by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions over 7 to 10 days before transplanting. Move them to the garden 4 to 6 weeks before your average last frost date, spacing plants 12 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. Plant at the same depth they were growing indoors.
Sow directly outdoors 4 to 6 weeks before your average last frost date, once soil temperature reaches at least 45 degrees Fahrenheit; seeds germinate most vigorously between 60 and 85 degrees. In mild climates, you can also sow in fall for a spring harvest. For continuous production, sow every 2 to 4 weeks from spring through mid-summer.
Harvest Italian Red of Florence once plants reach usable size, typically 60 days after sowing. You can harvest individual outer leaves once the plant is established, or pull the entire plant when the white base reaches about pencil thickness. The red-tinged tops remain tender and edible at harvest. Early harvests of younger plants yield more delicate, milder onion flavor, while plants left slightly longer will have more pronounced onion character. Since this is a bunching onion meant for fresh use rather than storage, harvest as needed rather than all at once, allowing other plants in your succession plantings to mature.
Enter your ZIP code to see a personalized growing calendar for this plant.