Allium Species, Ornamental Onion, Round Headed Leek

I saw these in someone else's formal-looking garden a few years ago and thought they looked great. I bought some fairly pricey bulbs. N...Read Moreow, a few years later, I can't believe I paid that much for bulbs that multiply like crazy. Also, I am not as fond as I thought I would be of the flowers, which turn a pretty dull greyish lavender fairly quickly. This spring,I have spent a lot of time digging out masses of them. I haven't even bothered to knock the dirt off many of the clumps as the bulbs are so tightly packed together. I guess I let them naturalize for a few years and now I am paying the price. I want to rid myself of all of them and stick to the larger-flowering allium varieties that hardly seem to multiply at all in contrast to this type. I should add that I live and garden in Toronto, Ontario.

I planted about 25 of these in full sun and was not impressed by the way they all started drooping and leaning once they bloomed, mostly ...Read Moreacross my garden walkway. I finally cut them all. They don't look droopy in photos, so maybe I did something wrong, but I usually do well with bulbs.

These could probably make a different contribution if planted among shrubs or tall perennials, as others have commented. But I would be mindful when planting them as to what will surround them when they bloom in early-mid July (Chicago, zone 6a). Bumblebees sure do love them!

I'm not enthusiastic about this onion.

It grows well enough here. It offsets a little too enthusiastically and gets a lit...Read Moretle weedy, for my taste.

And I think it looks a little weedy, too. I might feel differently if the flowers were more brightly colored, but they're a dull muddy maroon-and-green---not really fuchsia at all---and don't show up well in the landscape.

Bulbs are very cheap. But I'd rather pay a little extra and have A. hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' or A. christophii instead, with their livelier colors and better form.

I planted a big bag of these (100) in Autumn 2008 that I purchased from a "Home Center Store". I was new at planting bulbs, waited too l...Read Moreong (ground was somewhat frozen so my husband helped me to "chip" through it) & planted them in too much shade (only place I had room).

Even with all that, they came up in late Spring '09 looking really great!!

They bloomed a little later with stems that were a little thinner (from shade) & they angled "this-way & that-way", peeking through annuals & perennials (probably also from shade), but the overall effect was very pleasing with a different look than if they had been planted in full sun.

I'm really looking forward to them coming up this year. It will be interesting to see if they multiplied. Either way, I'll probably purchase some more for next year to go with the other varieties I'm planning to order from "Brent & Becky's".