Frank Arnold
• Buy allium bulbs from a good nursery or online resource. You want healthy bulbs with no cuts or soft spots. Research varieties to include several varieties of different bloom times to keep the show going!
• Most varieties are hardy zones 3-9.
• Like most bulbs, these look best planted in groups.
• Plant the bulbs in the fall, before the ground freezes. Plant them to a depth of 3 times their diameter in a sunny or mostly sunny position. Generally, 6-8 inches.
• Fertilize at planting and yearly in spring with bone meal or a bulb food.
• Water well, then leave till they burst out in flower in spring and summer! After flowering, allium foliage will wither, brown, and go dormant.
• Plant them under, behind, and around other perennial plants whose growing foliage will cover the allium foliage later in the summer when it browns.
• Do not cut back the browning allium leaves until fall, that is how they store energy for flowers the next season. (This is why planting foliage plants around them is important.)
• Most varieties are hardy zones 3-9.
• Like most bulbs, these look best planted in groups.
• Plant the bulbs in the fall, before the ground freezes. Plant them to a depth of 3 times their diameter in a sunny or mostly sunny position. Generally, 6-8 inches.
• Fertilize at planting and yearly in spring with bone meal or a bulb food.
• Water well, then leave till they burst out in flower in spring and summer! After flowering, allium foliage will wither, brown, and go dormant.
• Plant them under, behind, and around other perennial plants whose growing foliage will cover the allium foliage later in the summer when it browns.
• Do not cut back the browning allium leaves until fall, that is how they store energy for flowers the next season. (This is why planting foliage plants around them is important.)
