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Alliums companion planting

YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
in Plants

Ive planted all my allium bulbs and have another batch still to be delivered.  I know that they look better when they are underplanted but Im not sure what to plant.  I thought of the following but would be grateful for other suggestions.

  • Grasses (not sure which species)
  • Geraniums
  • Lavender
  • Gyp
  • Sweet alyssum
  • Aubretia
  • Cornflowers
  • Daylily
Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
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Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

     I mixed grasses and alliums last year and it looked awful so the grasses have been moved.   I have them elsewhere coming up through hardy geraniums, variegated elder, pulmonarias and hostas.   I wouldn't mix them with hemerocallis a sthe foliage is too similar.

    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
  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066

    Thanks obelixx

    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    I don't like Lavender but it likes the same conditions as alliums so that would be a good foil - the foliage will hide the dying leaves of alliums too. I have Sedums, annual cornflowers and geraniums in with mine just now. Some of them get quite big so it helps to have something quite substantial to help support them. I only grow the sphaerocephalon allium and I had Euphorbias and geranium Anne Folkard in a previous garden with it - both quite big plants which helped support it. I also had some Achilleas in the same area. image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698

    Allium looks knockout with Stipa tennuissima or Lavender in my opinion.

    http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/05/a6/66/05a666c2cf829b9f4f59a8fc07aeba6f.jpg

     

    http://blogs.crocus.co.uk/plantsmans/files/2011/07/Allium.Lavender.jpg

    But it will mix successfully with a huge variety of things. Going for something with early growth to hide the basal leaves of the alliums, but that flowers later in the year and gently engulfs the dried seed heads would seem a sensible idea. 

     

    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,887

    I love that allium / stipa combo photo  Will.

    Devon.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    Love the lavender combo.  Can't grow stipa here as it's too nesh.  I mixed miine with carex Buchananii and they didn't look good at all.

    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
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698

    I see. That Carex is a bit too dense to work I guess. (Gorgeous grass otherwise though).

    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    The colours didn't work and then the allium foliage looked lumpen against the finer carex.   Same thing in another bit where I mixed rich creamy daffs with bronze carex.   Also all separated now.  

    Good job carex is such a forgiving plant when moved.   It looks much better on its own with nothing to detract from all the fabulous shades of bronze and gold in the different strands.

    I've just been out and bought a whoel load more alliums of various sizes and shapes to plant in the borders and some sphaerocephalums to go in a pot with some violas.   I had some in a border but their foliage is so fine OH weeded them thinking they were grass.   Doh!

    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
  • BluebaronBluebaron Posts: 226
    I have the same problem but am looking at something to come up later. I have planted tulips and alliums in a bed. I have put box around the bed for structure but I guess it will look pretty barE come August when the alliums die down.



    I guess at the point I'll stick some bedding in.



    Would be nice to just plant bulbs in a bed and rely on nothing else to fill the space all year?
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I can't think of any bulbs whose foliage would really hide the dying foliage of earlier bulbs. In your situation maybe a hardy geranium which comes into leaf after the tulipand starts flowering after the allium (or at the same time). Geranium Rozanne maybe, as it has a very long season? At Great Dixter they have it in a bed with tulips and Japanese anemones, which swallow it up after it's seed heads have dried.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
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