Onion Spring White Lisbon

Allium cepa 'White Lisbon' Heritage Portuguese spring onion (scallion), fast-growing salad allium

The Portuguese heritage spring onion that has been the British kitchen-garden standard for over 200 years. White Lisbon produces clean, slim white stems with deep green tops, harvested young as classic spring onions (sometimes called scallions) for raw use in salads, sandwiches, garnishes, stir-fries, and the gentler onion-flavour preparations where a full-size bulb onion would overwhelm. The flavour is everything a spring onion should be: bright, fresh, mildly pungent, slightly sweet, with the proper allium snap that distinguishes home-grown spring onions from limp supermarket alternatives.

The variety has two defining features. First, it grows fast — from sowing to harvest in just 8–12 weeks, faster than almost any other onion type. This makes White Lisbon the variety to sow when you want salad ingredients quickly. Second, it is exceptionally cold-hardy — spring sowings produce summer crops, summer sowings produce autumn crops, and crucially, late summer sowings produce plants that overwinter in the ground and provide the year's earliest spring onions in March and April when nothing else fresh is available.

The "spring" in the name historically refers to this very property: a vegetable grown for spring harvest after overwintering, not a vegetable grown only in spring. With successional sowing from March through September, fresh White Lisbon spring onions can be on the plate for ten months of the year — April through to January.

White Lisbon is open-pollinated heritage. Seed saved from second-year flowering plants will grow true the following year.

A note on growing

Direct sow outdoors from March to September. Sow seed thinly at 1cm depth in rows 15cm apart. Germination takes 10–14 days. Thin to 2–3cm between final plants — closer than bulb onions because the harvest is the slim immature stem rather than a developed bulb. The thinnings themselves are usable as baby spring onions.

Water consistently through the growing season — drought-stressed spring onions become stringy and bitter. Mulch around plants to retain moisture. Keep the bed scrupulously weed-free.

For continuous harvest, sow short rows every two to three weeks from March through to August. The single most important White Lisbon habit is succession sowing — one large sowing produces all the spring onions simultaneously, and they don't stay perfect in the ground for long; multiple small sowings give continuous fresh supply.

For overwintering crops, sow in late August or early September. Plants will grow to fingerlike size before autumn and stand through winter, ready for the earliest spring picking in March and April.

Harvest from June onwards (spring/summer sowings) and from March onwards (overwintered sowings). Pull entire plants gently when stems are 1–1.5cm thick. White Lisbon does not produce useful regrowth from cut stems — harvest is one-shot per plant.

Where it shines

In the kitchen, White Lisbon is the universal spring onion. Slice fine and scatter over salads. Use whole in Asian stir-fries. Garnish soups, baked potatoes, scrambled eggs, and savoury pancakes. Add chopped to omelettes, frittatas, and savoury baking. Use the white shanks separately from the green tops for different cooking applications (whites for cooking, greens for raw). Use the tops as the finishing element of any dish that wants brightness and bite. Particularly outstanding in Welsh rarebit, kedgeree, and any preparation where the mild onion flavour brings the dish together without dominating.

In the garden, White Lisbon is the universal companion vegetable — pull occasional plants from anywhere in the bed for kitchen use, leaving the rest to grow on. The compact form makes it suitable for container growing, raised beds, window boxes, and intercropping between slower vegetables. For complete onion coverage, pair White Lisbon (spring) with Ailsa Craig (large yellow culinary) and Red Baron (red culinary) for the three-variety household onion range.

Plant alongside

Spring onions are themselves valuable companion plants — their scent deters aphids and carrot fly. Plant alongside carrots, beetroot, lettuce, and brassicas. Calendula 'Neon' attracts beneficial predators. Avoid planting near beans and peas.