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Will they grow back as good next year
Passionate
Posts: 225
in Plants
hi, does anyone know about purple sensation alliums, I have had a lovely display and right now I am enjoying the seed heads.
What happens next? Having my first year with these plants I'm not sure if I cut them down and save the seeds, but what then, or do I leave them to go off completely and wait for little plants to pop up next year, or do I dig the bulbs up and look for extra growing bulb lets and plant them ? Or if I cut them down and compost them will the bulbs just re sprout next year? Thanks any advice would be welcome.
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Hi Passionate, I grew alliums last year for the first time and waited for a while after they finished flowering (mainly because I liked the look of the seedheads and also because I wasn't sure if you needed to leave them for all the goodness to go back in the bulb). After a few weeks I cut the seedheads off and left them to dry in my conservatory. Once they were dried out I sprayed them silver. They made great Christmas decorations. Will be doing the same this year.
This year they came back bigger than ever, so I planted even more
Alliium bulbs are just like any other, it's important to leave the browning foliage on your bulbs until every leaf has died right down. This is the time when bulbs are storing food for next year’s flower. If you remove leaves too early, you’re less likely to have a flower the following year. If you want to keep the seeds, let the heads dry right out and then collect the black seeds (the easiest way is to gently bend the head into a paper bag and give a shake). Just scatter these over some damp compost in a tray (I cover with vermiculite) and leave somewhere sheltered. Be prepared to wait because it will be a few years before you get a new bulb big enough to produce a flower. Alternatively, you could just let the main bulbs self seed where they are planted and in time you'll get more alliums flowering, creating an impressive natural drift.
I don’t lift any of my bulbs in the garden.
As well as leaving the leaves to die down natureally, I'm going to give mine a bit of Fish Blood and Bone now that they've finished flowering in the hope that it'll help the bulbs store up energy for next year's flowers.
That's what I do with daffodils etc so hopefully the alliums will respond just as well as the daffs do.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Alliums are different in that you should feed much earlier than with other bulbs. Once they flower the leaves have already done their duty and are dying down. So, feed them before the flower stalks appear.
Answering your initial question Passionate "will they grow back as good as next year"...
yes, as long as they don't rot away, which depends on how you planted then in the first place. Some more details about this are on this thread...
http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/plants/growing-alliums/726278.html
I've had mine in place for ~5 years now and they are just as good year after year.
Thanks a lot for everyone's advice and information, I do as always very much appreciate it.
That's helpful Berghill, thanks. So I'm a bit late this year, but I'll be prepared for next
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.