Alliums, please post yours.

My first alliums are starting to burst forth. Allium rosenbechianum. Others varieties are on the way, but the foliage on most of them is not looking too good. Too much wind, dessicated. Patti

Here's a few A. rosenbachianum

Allium schubertii almost blooming

allium karataviense 'Ivory Queen'

Allium k. 'Ivory Queen' - close up.

Allium 'Mount Everest'

and, a couple of mid height purple baseballs.
Claypa, I''m envious...none of my schubertii seem to have survived to this season.

jmorth, Love the 'Mount Everest' and nice lilies too. It is in the 40's here so things are very slow growing. I think I just found some schubertii trying to emerge. Claypa, your group of rosenbachianum look great as does your schubertii. I should have planted a bigger group like you did, as mine look kind of lonely. I hope my schubertii comes back. I planted some Ivory Queen, I need to go and check on them. I had forgotten about them until I saw yours. I have giganteum ' white giant ' and 'Gladiator' coming along. Patti

Last year I dug up my "4" Gladiator Allium bulbs. They had produced a bunch more of themselves. I gave away several, then just to put the rest somewhere, I lined the back of one of my gardens. There is a small wood behind us and I was really happy with the tall purple heads of the Gladiator against the green back drop of the woods. Hard to see in this photo with the sun, but it does look nice.

Here is Allium karativiense Ivory Queen and Allium Karativiense.
I have Allium Christophyii right behind them, but the flower head did not get as big as it usually does.
toofew

Very nice pics. Yours look so robust!

Do you all get pretty good return on your alliums? I haven't had good luck with them year after year....maybe not enough sun or too much summer water, I guess? In 2005 I planted a couple hundred alliums---from Globemasters down to the teeny tiny ones...and had maybe a 25% return. If you have a secret to share about better return, I would love to hear it!

Thanks. t.

Here is Gladiator. Mine are not 6" more like 4" so far. Patti
rose purple 6" globe 36" to 48"
A cross between A. aflatunense and A. macleanii Baker

This is my sort of pathetic looking container grown Allium (with Anemone):

I think your container looks great, zone5girl. It's nice to see some white alliums.

These are not mine (I wish they were!). I took this picture at Schreiner's Iris Gardens earlier this week. Those folks have perfected the art of combining perennials with their showcase bearded irises.

This one is Allium canadense var fraseri. It's native to Texas and I'm sure a lot of other places too.

Deb, where is yours planted? I planted some alliums (not this one) in full sun and once they started peeking, those babies fried within a week. I really like this white one.

Out in the full blazing west Houston sun, Voss--it's a native. Really well behaved and not at all invasive. I'm starting to get seed from it now--I'll try to get some plants going. It's about 18" tall and the plants are small and hide well in with other stuff.

tabasco, My Gladiators come back wonderfully. I had them in full sun. I had to dig them up and divide them. I started out with about four of them and ended up with about 30 bulbs in 4 years. I had 2 globemasters mixed in with them, but after the first year,I couldn't tell which ones were the globemasters, or if they had died out.

I moved all the gladiator bulbs to the new site which gets about 6 hours of sunlight a day. They seem to have done fine.

All the rest come back, but don't seem to multiply like the gladiators.

Oh, I did plant 3 Allium Purple Sensation 2 years ago and they seem to love the hot dry place I have them. Even though I'm in zone 5/6, I know they are in a microclimate of at least zone 7. I don't find them as impressive as the globemasters or the gladiators, but they have a very pretty purple color.

My Allium Molly's are getting ready to bloom. Will try to post a pic of those.
toofew


This message was edited May 28, 2007 7:41 PM

toofewanimals, I am liking my gladiators, though they are not as large for me as I expected. Mine are in full sun, but maybe I should try some in less for next year. I now have Allium karativiense 'Ivory Queen' about to open, but being a little shy, though I think all 10 that I planted survived the weird winter. I have Allium christophii poking up as well as a lot of 'Hair'. I need to go check on a few others that I planted last fall. Here is the newest to start to open Allium giganteum 'White Giant'. The leaves look pretty ratty, but the stalk and blooms seem fine so far. What does the brown tips on the leaves mean for Alliums (frost burn?) Patti

I planted A. karativiense ~ Ivory Queen. The blooms were more than a disappointment. Perhaps Vossner was right on them frying. OTH,

What does the brown leaf tips mean? It hasn't been frosty here.

Alliums broke my heart but we do have a good substitute: Lily of the nile. I got some of those and my heart is slowly healing as the agapanthus start forming buds.

In all fairness, a lot of alliums do very well in the south. Allium drummondi, A coryi, A canadense var fraseri and A canadense var mobilense, and Allium texanum all do really well.

I will have to tray those someday. I love pompom shaped plants

Thank you twofewanimals for your allium report. And congratulations on getting yours to reproduce! I think mine may rot out either from too much summer watering or lack of winter drainage. Or maybe my soil doesn't have the right nutrients...

Your are lucky to have such good luck with them. The only one that is really coming back for me is the Allium 'hair', which is cute, but hardly a typical allium!

'Lily of the Nile' is a wonderfully cheery plant. I hope yours really thrive, Voss.

First year for my A. Karataviense. I saw a photo of this plant in an old Herb Companion and fell in love. Actively searched and the only cultivar I found was Ivory Queen. It had blooms but this years crop was so meager I would be embarassed to post photos.

JMOrth ~ Toofew ~ I would appreciate any knowledge you might share. I hope to keep it going thru the year and hope for better bloom results next year. Any advice on soil type, letting it seed or cutting bloom stalks, fertilizers, winter protection? Appreciate your trouble. pod

I like the Agapanthus but this plant just "sings" to me... : )

Fast draining soil and not much water in summer...when the flowering is over I'd cut off the flowering seed head and stalk to redirect energy back into bulb's capacity to be better next season (I don't always do this for the seedhead's roundularness is persistant and good to behold). The Allium k. Ivory Queen are situated to receive half day full sun (Eastern exposure) in a somewhat sandy soil. The taller alliums are able to receive full sun most of the day. I've also got some wild Alliums in a shady spot (June bloom).

Any idea on the yellowed tips? I am suspicious of moisture in this climate. For now they are in pots. I will move them to a drier area. Thanks for the advice... These may be an uphill battle in this climate. pod

This message was edited May 30, 2007 7:14 AM

podster, All my big Alliums have the yellow tips, never have been able to find anything that works. I just like to try and hide the leaves if possible. Here is a little something I found on the web:

The article did say that these plants in general are prone to yellowing of the tip of the leaf, and it usually doesn't do anything to the plant.

I don't really care for the look of the old flower heads and cut them off. That is always better for the bulb anyway. My Gladiators, Christophyii, Molly, and Mount Everest all produce a bunch of seeds. I believe I read somewhere that Globemaster is infertile ... one way to tell it apart from the Gladiators. Mine never got seeds ... got seed heads, but nothing in them.

I have most of my Alliums planted in the regular garden in fast draining soil, but they do get watered with the rest of my perinneals, one inch of water per week. The gladiators must have liked this, but not the Globemasters. They also get fertilized about every 2 - 4 weeks with the rest of the garden. I try to put compost on in the spring, but this doesn't happen every spring. This year I put milorganite on the grass and went ahead and broadcast it into the garden too. It doesn't look like it hurt anything.

One more thing; about Allium Molly: it will spread if you leave the seed heads ... good naturalizer. I'm not big on yellow, so I cut the seed heads off.

pardalinum - Thanks for the great idea of combining the Alliums with the bearded iris! You are so right! My iris are separated from my alliums a little ... if I get the time, I will try to move they closer to eachother!

toofew

Alliums, beaded iris and nigella are a classic combination that Penelope Hobhouse started a few years back and it looks fabulous. Yellowing of leaves is typical of these bulbs and when you think of them as a relative of the onion that's what they do when the flower is maturing as effectively the bulb is reproducing.

Here's my globemaster. Its a good 6" across.

Beautiful Alliums everyone. I love them and have a few myself.

Here's Allium christophii

Here's Allium Purple Sensation.

Here's Allium jesdianum. These flowers are just about 2 inches across.

Here's my Allium schubertii.

Very nice Joy. My christophii is just opening

This is Allium Oreophilum Zwanenburg

Allium cyathophorum

Allium Azure

All so pretty.

goldfinch4, I've never seen one that color blue. Where did you find that one ?

Hi Peggy,

First, I noticed I spelled the name wrong - it should be Azureum (oops-sorry). And it really is that beautiful blue color. I got it from John Scheepers. The flower isn't huge - only about 2". But I love blue flowers!