Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Alliums with other plants? New to gardening!

ph1109ph1109 Posts: 32
in Plants
Very new to gardening, so this will be a very basic questions to you experts!
I have planted alliums (I think the name was Purple sensation?) and I was very happy when they came up, great result.
However I learnt that the leaves are not pretty, you need to have something growing under them. I have read that Sedum, Lady's mantle or Geranium or good candidates. I believe I have these in my garden, I guess I could dig one of them up.
But I have no idea how to go about?
Do I divide the perennial that will be used in really small clumps, that will fit in between the aliums? How can I make sure not to disturb the alliums? I really hope I don't need to remove the alliums while planting the perennial  after the great succes I had with them (worried to do something wrong this time 😬) Maybe I can use very small (young) perennial plants (seedlings) so I don't disturb the alliums? And what is the best month for this job?
Many thanks, really looking forward to a reply!!

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    If you planted your alliums at the proper depth you can easily grow other plants such as hardy geraniums over them and they'll just push thru and send up their flower stalks.   With a few exceptions, bulbs should always planted at 3 times the depth of the height of the bulb so it has twice the depth of soil over it.   

    You can plant new geraniums at any time of year if they are pot grown and you water well before and after or you can wait till autumn and lift, divide and re-plant existing geraniums in your garden.

    You can read about how to do it here - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=363 and this video shows you how, tho it's with rudbeckia rather than geraniums.   The technique is the same tho I always water my plants before digging them up and I do it in spring or autumn depending on the plant because summer can be too hot and stressful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un5JvyzpBYE 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • ph1109ph1109 Posts: 32
    Thank you very much. That was very helpful. I never realised that you can divide into very small plants (like on the picture of the article), I always thought you had to divide in 2, maybe 3 large  parts, to end up with strong, good sized plants, I thought they would not survive when cut in smaller pieces.

    But even then, with a fairly small plant, how would that ever fit on top of an allium bulb? Knowing myself, I will have followed the exact instructions, so the bulbs should have been planted at the right depth (I can't remember). Even then, would there really be enough space above the bulb? Or between the bulbs?

    In the video Alan Titchmarsh plants his small rudbeckias the depth of his hand shovel - this depth must be deeper than twice the depth of soil over the allium bulbs?
    Hopefully I am wrong (again)!

    I will try it in autumn (next month). Maybe I will put some bamboo canes to show me where the alliums are, as their stalks might have gone by then.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited August 2020
    If and when you lift your geraniums, you will see that their roots are not that deep so, as long as your soil is generally good, you don't need a deep hole to re-plant them.   Just because his trowel has a 6" blade on it doesn't mean he's going in that deep but even if he did, to loosen up the soil, you don't need to.  

    Make the planting holes just 3 inches deep and firm the plants in well after back-filling.  As long as the soil is moist and has a good amount of fibrous material in it and you water afterwards, the geraniums will send their roots down as far as they need and your alliums will grow up through them next spring, as will daffodils and any other bulb.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    None of those three plants are difficult, so, as @Obelixx says, you can split plants and just push them in, between the alliums.
    Sedums, in particular, need virtually no depth. 
    Lady's mantle [alchemilla] has  a very deep root though, and even tiny plants can be hard to dig out, so you might need to save seed with that -not usually difficult! It's almost indestructible though, so even if you don't get the original plant out fully, you'll still find that bits pulled off and potted up will be viable.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • ph1109ph1109 Posts: 32
    Thank you very much, Obelixx and Fairlygirl!
    Very happy to know that it can be done, and what the right way is to do it.

    By the way today I found out that what I thought was Lady's mantle is in fact Geum, oops!
     🙄😑🤭

    Thanks again for your help!!



  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I like geum a whole lot more than lady's mantle!
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • ph1109ph1109 Posts: 32
    I was so surprised today when I discovered a very pretty orange flower! I then knew it couldn't be Lady's mantle.  I looked online and it is Geum! The flowers of Geum are certainly prettier. Am I right in saying that the leaves are somewhat similar? That would justify my mistake🙂

    It is a bit strange that the geum only started flowering today, so I read, but I live North and also this plant is new in this garden, that is maybe why it is so late. The leaves look very happy and healthy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Not really for the leaves.  Lady's mantle has palmate leaves and frothy, very acid yellow flowers: 

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/774/alchemilla-mollis/details   Not a favourite of mine but I can see its value for ground cover as long as you remove the flowers before they set seed and invade.

    Geum has a rosette of lobed leaves and very attractive flowers in shades form yellow thru peach, orange, pink and red:

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-results?query=Geum



    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
Sign In or Register to comment.