An Allium Solution?

last fall at the Garden Club plant sale, I got a big allium plant that I was able to split into three clumps. Here are two of them today. The bee is just a cute freebee!

I thought they were going to bloom in the spring. That is more the norm for most alliums. But this is actually a good time of the season for some extra color, so I'm happy enough that they bloom now. These are also not as tall as the giant alliums. They are 12-15" high.

I looked up if you can plant allium and daffodils together (Allium is actually an onion, so I wasn't sure if it affected nearby bulbs). You can. The daf bulbs should be a bit deeper, so they actually can work well together. And the allium starts to bloom as the daffodil leaves are finishing. Here are two of the plants on August 3, when they were finally starting to turn purple.

But they've been fun to look at for a lot longer than that. The first picture I took this year was on July 26, when the heads were formed and turning white. But they were making the balls for several days before that. So there are probably at least 3 weeks of interest including both form and color.

The daffodills need to be thinned again anyway. I may have to try mixing these this fall. That's the correct time to be moving all these bulbs.

And this late bloom time has helped me identify this as Allium sphaerocephalon- which means "round head," so there's another clue. They would be in more sun out where the daffodils are, too, which would probably make them happier.

The heat today was brutal. I managed to work on things in the morning. Then I cancelled my participation in some trail work in the sun. In fact, by 1 pm, the heat was just about unbearable. It hurts my skin, makes it hard to breathe, and I can't even keep the computer on my lap very long because it's so hot. Lots of cold drinks and very little activity after that. Some days, I just have to give up. It's starting to cool down now. Maybe I can move a few boxes of stuff this evening.

See Annual Mistakes - Part 2