Is this onion for culinary use? Could you show us what the bulbs look like?

Yes, culinary use, and the bulbs don't look like I expected! They seem to be attached to each other with very fibrous roots... almost like rhizomes:

Do the leaves have a slight garlic smell and taste? Perhaps garlic mustard, Allium tuberosa? Poland has been growing onions for centuries, and there is no specific entity called 'Polish Onion', that comes up when I google it.

Jay, you meant Garlic chives! I know garlic mustard too well. lol! Yes, that seems to fit. The taste seems to be sweet (grass-like) and more like garlic than onion. Thank you! I think we'll like these, although keeping them potted makes sense to me. :)

Perhaps some species of Tulbaghia? Common name is "society garlic".

There are some types of Allium fistulosum, the bunching, non-bulbing form of onion, that are called Polish onion. But they are just cultivars that originated in Poland, where the onion is the national vegetable. That isn't what you have.

Are there bulbs on your plants that I'm just not seeing? It appears to have mostly fleshy roots with maybe a slight swelling at the base of the leaves.

I pulled one up and tried to wash it off to see it better... there's really not much of a bulb. The brownish fiber is tough -- the entire base is very firm and stiff.

I've had garlic mustard on the brain lately, because it is that time of year, oops.🙊🤣

All the Allium species in North America have bulbs. you speak Pollish?

It looks close to, or maybe Tulbaghia, but a flower would help nail it.

Jay, my Polish is very limited! The woman who gave them to my sister is from Poland, so these ”onions” are not from North America. The flowers will tell us more, so I guess we just wait now. :p

Is there still a vegetable forum here? I remember there were some onion/garlic experts over there.

There is, Jay. And I was just told that it will have beautiful white flowers.

Looks like my cross-post worked to add the Veg forum.

A white flower indicates it can’t be ‘society garlic’, because that has a pink flower, right right?

peren.all, I find all different (inconsistent) images for garlic chive roots/bulbs online. Can you show what yours looks like with either your own photo or referring to images online?

Thanks, everyone for the help!

There are white flowering Tulbaghia. I will try to get a pic but I will be racing against much needed rain that is imminent.

Just judging by the photos, I would say you have leeks.

No, I’m certain they are not leeks. Completely different roots, growth habit and coloration.

There is also an Allium forum.

Maybe the "Polish" is a bad joke? Like a fake onion? Root rhizomes seems little like onions.

I agree that they’re not leeks.

As I said, the woman who gave them to my sister is from Poland. She doesn’t know the English name(s) for them and calls them ”Polish Onions”.

Thanks, Cindy, I just added the Alliums forum.

Also agreeing definitely not garlic chives. I have loads of them growing for many years and none have that purple coloration on the base.

Perhaps a variey of Allium fistulosum? There are red stemmed versions.

Does she know the Polish name for them?

Still trying to find out — she has gone to Poland.

Thanks, carolb, for confirming it’s not garlic chives.

I potted them up and they’re not doing anything. lol.

wahoo! I'm back with a teaser! :) Since I wasn't sure about what this plant was, I stuck it in a gallon container and grew it in a mostly sunny location... not ideal, so it hasn't done much all summer. We got a few inches of rain over the past few days and I just noticed that these flower buds have sprung up out of nowhere. They sit round 10- 12" high now... I'll post more photos when the flowers open! :)

rats, photo didn't post? Trying again:

Well, the mystery is starting to flower just like Garlic Chives, same time, same type of bud. See if the flower matches. Not sure which other onions flower in late Summer.

I wondered if this would be a normal bloom time for it…. it’s been in less than ideal growing conditions in a pot. No change in the flower buds yet, other than having taller stems, because it’s been dark and rainy here.

Flowers still haven’t opened:

They’re really whimpy — ordinary pencil for scale:

Looking a lot more like garlic chives now...

So weird that they didn’t seem like garlic chives when I got them. They don’t look like much in the pot, but the tall flower stems are cute so far.

There's a Czech onion called "Early Yellow Globe". The bulb is 6mm in diameter about a 1/4". The bulb neck diameter is 1.4 MM, kind of wimpy. The link is to the USDA ARS site. Click on Observation and Show five rows and change that to all rows.

Almost certainly garlic chives. I grow a generic cultivar of the species (A. tuberosum) and it looks identical to the photos posted here. My patch has been expanding slowly since 2016, and is in full bloom now. A really good late summer flower to attract pollinators, bees & other insects are swarming over it. I'll try to post a photo. A nice flower for edible landscaping, and controllable if not allowed to seed.

Really don't see the problem with identifying it as garlic chives. A scrunched small piece of a leaf and a sense of smell would be definitive...

Flowers are finally opening! stems are around 15” tall. If this confirms that it’s garlic chives, then why were some convinced earlier that it wasn’t GC based on the base/bulbs/roots?

eta: individual flowers are about 5/8" wide.

Yes, the flowers look like Garlic Chives. Maybe they were more like onions the Polish lady liked, nothing wrong with that, instead of a Polish cultivar of onion.

I dug up some that were getting shaded, they are very easy to grow and spread. The roots look just like the roots in pics 5 and 6, a small cluster of small oblong brownish "bulbs" with white roots spreading out. The roots do superficially look like a perennial large grass than a regular Chives plants

Ok, then, I have garlic chives. I will let my sister know too. Thanks, everyone, for all the help!