I added this image in June, but these are blooming now. I've had them for years. The only issue with them is that they tend to seed around - which I LOVE!!!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/310835/
Oh, here you go - a picture taken on September 17, some years back.
Excellent picture Donna...thank you for this. Lovely plant for the late season garden.
I started out with three plants I bought at a Wisconsin nursery. At first I did not realize that they were bulbs. They have seed heads which dry and drop seed and they multiply that way. At some point you may want to start deadheading them. They will spread enthusiastically. You only need two or three.
I was having a terrible time digging them up at first because I didn't realize that they have to be dug up in August. I kept digging up what looked like grass in spring, but there are bulbs at the bottom. I think that this is why you do not see them. They are on a completely different cultivation cycle from most alliums. Blooming in fall instead of spring.
Here is another picture taken on September 20 a few years back. Here you can see some of them going to seed. This is two years after the first picture from my garden above. The little ones are offspring! They dry and drop little black seeds, which turn up a year or two later. They can become weedy, but you can always remove the excess. I just love them!
Costco's selection this year was full of a large variety of truly beautiful tulips (which I no longer plant) and a few other things, but not the same selections as in the past. Could not pass by without a few things, namely purple alliums, another package of frits and I think some reticulated iris. Also a package of chionodoxia (probably 100 bulbs), so I'll know if that's what's been growing here. For the life of me I cannot locate a photo of those early blooms, but if recollection is correct, they face upward. I think this package is a mix of blues and white blooms.
Costco also carries a larger package that has a combo of plants I avoid those for the most part as I haven't had the best of luck and they are generally not well marked on the outside as to the contents.
I ordered a few allium bulbs from Colorblends at the end of June, so when those come in, we'll be pretty busy. I will share what I cannot plant.
I am bound and determined to grow A. Schubertii and Christophii (one Christophii came up this year). The other alliums seem to prosper in our yard, so it's perplexing that these haven't, and I am getting determined. I don't believe the the ceruleans came up either, but they might have been too short to see in the heavy summer growth.
For now, the indoor bulbs will be caladiums, and there are bulbs to share if anyone would like.
Wait for Christophii. I had the same experience. I thought it was gone. I bought some more. I gave three to a friend who said that two disappeared. I brought over two more. The next year there were five. I find that they sometimes "skip a year" the first time you put them in. But if you dig down you will find the bulbs. The other trick - don't deadhead them. But I think that you will find that next year they appear.
Here are some pictures of chionodoxa in bloom to help with your identification. You noted that they face upward. It's one way of telling them from scilla aka squils - chionodoxa faces upward, which is why I thought it would "Pop" better.
Pic. 1 alba (well, yeah!)
Pic. 2 Pink Giant (MUCH bigger than the white). If you look in the bottom right corner you will see a couple of white ones for comparison. You can also see that they naturalize like mad, which is delightful.
Pic. 3 Sardensis, which is a bright, small dark blue. As you can see, I used to use it in my peony beds. They are photographing much lighter than they are.
All of them naturalize, by the way. I put a few of the white ones at the base of a tree and they delighted me by forming a ring almost entirely around the tree in a few years.
Yesterday I was able to find many but small Ozawa Alliums. Today they have gone into the ground.
This is a Very Good Post. I wish I had read it earlier in the fall to order some of the mentioned alliums.
Here's an article I have bookmarked for a couple of years. Maybe, someone will find it interesting.
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/alliums-spring-fall-all-season.aspx
Great article! I really enjoyed it.
The above article changed its link. It has been archived. It can now be found on the Fine Gardening site at :
http://www.finegardening.com/alliums-all-season-long
This message was edited Jun 22, 2014 8:51 AM
I am glad you like it. I liked how they put the Alliums in bloom sequence.
I think the Voles ate all of mine.
I have read several times alliums are rodent resistant. Mine disappeared also. They were the large bulbs. I think mine must have rotted---even though, I planted them on a slope. Soil was clay however--thus my reasoning that they rotted. Or, I may have planted them too deep. I think they were at least six inches deep.
Not necessarily. Please have a look above. I thought that christophii and oreophyllum disappeared, only to plant more. It turns out they "took a year off" which has happened to me and a firend of mine. Then they reappeared in multiples.
But I did find that tiquetrum and roseum disappeared after one season, never to return. And atropurpureum, which I have tried several times, dies out.
Donna, I sure hope you are right, and I find a surprise next spring. It was the Allium schuburtii and Allium christophii. I see it's the same two that has not returned for cathy166.
Christophii? Step back!!!
These are pics of areas from which christophii "disappeared". As you can see, they seeded like mad, and just took an extra year to grow to maturity.
2009, 2010, 2011
Good pictures, Donna. Very pretty.
