Bulbs: I am new to ALLIUMS, 1 by cathy166

cathy166 wrote:
Not an authority, but I've been growing alliums for a few years. It's one of those "set it and forget it" types of bulbs.

The bulbs are planted in the fall. As far as I know, they need full sun. I don't think squirrels or deer eat them, as we have deer, squirrels and other critters, and don't seem to lose many.

I generally buy large bulbs, either Globemaster or Gladiator. The larger the bulb, the more expensive it is. Very early on, end of March beginning of April, you will see a pretty little rosette which eventually looks like the first photo. Once it starts to send its spike, the leaves shown in the first photo tend to become very dry at the ends and fairly unattractive, but not too noticeable. They flowers on the spike start to open and are fully open as in the third photo in a round ball. Each flowerhead contains hundreds of small flowers and last a couple of weeks. After a while, each individual bloom starts to die off, and as the heads starts to go to seed as in the fourth photo, still quite attractive. Most of our alliums are lavender or dark purple, but the last photo is of a white allium, abut a week before it is fully open.

These came out in full in May (for us in the northeast), and the heads have gone to seed, but I usually cut them down if they become too heavy and start to bend or otherwise look bad.

In the meantime, the small "drumstick" alliums have been growing slowly, and their heads are much smaller. The spike is much less substantial and may need support. The heads have not opened yet, are too small and still covered with the thin, papery covering.

Everything purple or lavender came up for me, but I know we planted 3 white bulbs (albas), but were only graced with one. They were wonderful accent plants, tall and stately, as other plants in that bed were developing and growing taller.

I buy the bulbs at Costco, where all the packages are the same size and price. The more expensive the bulb, the fewer the number of bulbs in the package. I think the Gladiators have 3 bulbs.

If you grown other plants from bulbs, you know that large bulbs need to be planted deeper, at least 4-6 inches. We have them in a bed by the front walk that is loaded with all kinds of bulbs, including tulips and muscaris. The large alliums, tulips and lilies are planted deepest with the smaller, earlier bulbs on top. By the time the alliums and lilies are sprouting, the smaller plants have already bloomed and died down. We amend the soil and add fertilizer as well.

The large alliums tend to bloom around the same time as the tall bearded irises, which are also in that bed as well as peonies. A small amount of eye candy for spring walkers.