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Alliums begin flowering in late spring and provide plenty of early colour for your yard or garden.

As much as I love winter and its understated simplicity, come spring, I’m ready for some colour. Tulips and daffodils are lovely, of course. But I need something way over the top before I can settle down and enjoy the rest of spring and summer’s offerings. Ornamental alliums are the ticket.

Big brilliant purple globes that seem to hang mid-air. Totally over the top, they can be as big as dinner plates.

Alliums usually begin flowering in late spring, as the tulips finish up (this spring is highly atypical), and hang out for a good couple of weeks or more.

A small collection makes for a spectacular, low-maintenance display. The flowers come in different sizes, but all are supported on a single stem that’s so thin it’s almost invisible. Up close, they look like lollipops. From a distance, the stems disappear and they float. Doesn’t every yard, and everyone of us, need some oversized bubbles dancing in the breeze?

Globemaster, Giganteum, Mount Everest — appropriately loud names for this flashy spring flowering bulb.

Globemaster and Giaganteum are among the biggest. They stand at about 90 centimetres high and have a 25-centimetre flower.

Just as big, Mount Everest is white, and flowers later than most alliums, in the summer.
Purple Sensation is quite popular. It’s about 60 to 90 centimetres high with a 12-centimetre globe.

Want to start a bit smaller? Turkestan is a mere 20 centimetres high, but sports a 12-centimetre white flower. Very showy and great in rock gardens.

Let the flowers finish up and enjoy the seed head. If you can protect it throughout the summer, it’ll make a fabulous contribution to the fall and winter garden.

Like many spring flowering bulbs, the leaves get quite ugly after flowering finishes up, and sometimes even before. Plant them among roses, irises, peonies, lady’s mantle, lilies, daylilies or other perennials that will hide the leaves, as well as protect the seed head.

Alliums are planted in the fall, a few weeks before the first frost, when the soil temperature is below 15 degrees. They require full sun, and well-drained soil. They will not put up with wet growing conditions. A bright, sunny and somewhat dry spot is ideal.

 Added bonus, the deer, rabbits and squirrels will leave them alone.

Check out your neighbourhood’s alliums, bask in their exuberance, and put a few on your list for this fall’s planting.

Carla Keast has a masters degree in landscape architecture and is a Winnipeg-based freelance landscape designer. She can be reached at contact@carlakeast.com.