Best Shallot Varieties for Scotland

Shallots fail in two main ways. A cold spell in spring makes them bolt, throwing up a flower stem instead of bulking up, and a boltedA plant switching early into flowering and seed production, usually triggered by stress, after which leaves, roots or bulbs turn bitter or unusable. Full page → bulb won't store. In a wet summer, onion downy mildew can take the crop instead. Two varieties here each resist one of them, so the right pick depends on which one your plot suffers from.

What Scotland means for the choice

A cold spring is the main trigger for bolting, and downy mildew thrives in wet, humid weather, so a Scottish plot can face both in the same year. Most shallots are planted in early to mid-spring and lifted in mid to late summer, which means winter hardiness rarely matters. The exception is an autumn planting, which only suits free-drainingSoil that lets water pass through quickly rather than pooling, so roots aren't sitting in wet ground after rain. Full definition → soil. All the varieties here except Camelot are rated H3The RHS's H1a–H7 scale for how much cold a plant can survive outdoors, H1a being tender indoor-only and H7 hardy anywhere in the UK. Full definition →, hardy only in coastal and relatively mild parts of the UK (roughly -5°C to 1°C). Camelot is H6, hardy anywhere in the UK, down to about -20°C. The shallot growing guide covers sets or seed, planting, lifting and storing.

Longor, Zebrune, Meloine and Matador hold the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), a UK-wide award rather than a Scottish one. Camelot doesn't.

Longor

Longor is the default to start with. It gives up to eight elongated bulbs from each set and stores well. Switch only if bolting or downy mildew has already cost you a crop, since Longor has no stated resistance to either.

Zebrune and Meloine

Zebrune is the one to grow where shallots keep bolting. It's a torpedo-shaped heritage variety with "good resistance to bolting": better than the others, not bolt-proof.

Meloine is the only variety here with any resistance to onion downy mildew, described as "some resistance". It's a rounded, mild-flavoured shallot giving up to eight bulbs per clump.

Matador and Camelot

Matador is grown from seed rather than sets, one round bulb per seed, and it's high-yielding and stores well. Seed is cheaper and less prone to bolting than sets, but slower, which works against a short season. Grow Matador to save money on seed; for bolting, Zebrune is the better fix.

Camelot has teardrop-shaped bulbs with deep red skin, stores well, and is the only H6 variety here. For a spring planting that's no advantage. For an autumn planting on free-draining ground, it's the one most likely to come through the winter.

Other varieties

Golden Gourmet is a heavy cropper that keeps well. Red Gourmet is early-maturing with red flesh, and Red Sun gives large red-tinged bulbs that store well.

Which one for your situation

• No particular problem so far: Longor.
• Bolting after cold springs: Zebrune.
• Downy mildew in wet summers: Meloine.
• Planting in autumn, on free-draining soil: Camelot.
• Growing from seed: Matador.
• Red shallots: Camelot, Red Gourmet or Red Sun.

See bolting and onion downy mildew for what to do when they strike, and the crop rotation planner to keep shallots on an allium rotationMoving each crop family to different ground each year, on a multi-year cycle, so pests and diseases that build up in soil don't get a repeat host. Full definition →.

Common questions

Sources