Splitting allium bulbs and digging up the lawn

I think a major flaw in a bulb's existence is its need to be dug up some time after being planted.  Its hard enough work getting it in the first time without having to repeat the job.  Luckily I am of the opinion that allium bulbs are worth it, and it doesn't need doing every year thankfully.

You can see where the stem of one of the heads is still sticking out to guide me down, and the new babies this side

Several years ago, probably about five, the mother purchased a couple of allium bulbs and planted them in the garden. Two she planted in completely appropriate locations. One she did not. Right smack bang in the middle of what was to become my vegetable patch in the back garden. For the last four years I have had to plant my vegetables around it, leaving a little boundary round where I think it is every year and eating into valuable planting space. For the last two years I have threatened to dig it up to shift it, but this year I expanded my vegetable patch which moved it from at least being near the edge to literally in the middle. It had to go.

Four healthy sized bulbs where there was once only one

After an exceptionally heavy period of rainfall in September I felt the time was ripe and I started excavation work.  When the mother did her planting she did a sterling job, although it is also where I dump old soil from pots, but either way it was about a foot and a half deep. Achieving a depth of that magnitude in my garden usually requires the help of a pickaxe. And a lot of sweat. Sweat I most certainly did but finally I happened upon the bulb. Im not quite sure when the right time for splitting alliums is, but the stump of the stem was still in place to guide my digging so I wanted to get on with it.

The bulb had been busy making babies beneath the soil. In digging it to find the parameters I discovered it had made three great big extra bulbs ready for splitting. Bulbs need splitting up because they reproduce and then cramp each other out. What was once once allium has produced a couple of heads for the last couple of years so it definitely warranted doing before it got too carried away with itself.

My three bought summer drummer bulbs. Obviously these are dryer as they aren't fresh from the soil

There is something very satisfying about digging up a whole cluster of bulbs, especially when only one went in and after so many years. The photos are not exactly the most visually stimulating but if your a gardener I think you'll agree that such a find is a thrill. Less thrilling is the need to dig holes to replant. I promised the mother I would bury them in my chosen location at the same depth as they had first lovingly been planted. Did I heck! They will have to find their own way down to that kind of depth, but they are at a reasonable level. I have shifted them across to the other side of the vegetable patch to what is slowly becoming my allium section. While this meant losing a little from one edge, it is less space than where it was previously. Obviously I split the bulbs up and interspaced them with my spanish drummer bulbs that I bought at Hampton Court this year. I  comparison the summer drummer bulbs were huge.

The mixture of bulbs in their new holes. Not as deep as they were originally but this will do

With these repositioned I should have a really good display of alliums come next year, and all together on mass as well. Hopefully each individual bulb will produce a flower head. If so my numbers really will be bolstered!

My original vegetable patch, complete with one out-turned pot and a cracking weed at the back

While I am talking about the vegetable patch I thought I would share my expansion efforts. I dug up the surrounding lawn to provide and extra foot or two of space. This was the compromise between my parents and I, as I was super keen to put in for an allotment and the mother said she would rather I dug up the lawn, so I did. Hopefully this extra space will really help the broad bean and pea season as they are always hampered by the cramped conditions.

It may not be much but these extra few inches are precious to me

Alliums - red mohican, hair, and bizarre

The magnificent red mohican, the topknot is just beginning to pop out here 

Red mohican alliums are all I have ever wanted from an allium.  A strong statement but one I fully believe in.  Im fond of any allium, but now my mohicans are out they take the top allium spot in my heart without competition.

My first batch of alliums were the usual purple and white fair with large spherical balls of flower.  These early bloomers have all died and dried now, the stems hacked off and stuffed in a bush to ensure the bulb is fed rather than seeds made and we have great big balls next year as well.

Red mohicans are totally different.  Even the buds tread a different path to the rest, with little wizend peaks like witches hats setting them apart.

The colour started out this lovely dark burgundy with flecks of golden

On opening they are dark dark burghundy red with little flashes of yellow.  Definitely one of those flowers that are great because they are not traditionally attractive.  There is a slight menacing angry aura  to them, perfectly befitting their punky 'mohican' name.  The name also obviously refers to their bizarre topknot.  After being open for a few days, the part of the flower at the very top slowly reaches up and breaks the spherical shape.

There is only one thing I don't like about red mohicans, I planted three bulbs and I have two flowers.  The third is pants, flopping helplessly on the floor rather than standing upright for no apparent reason at all, the flower is barely out and very small.  I am disappointed, very disappointed.  To be fair one of the other two is a bit meagrely proportioned, but this can be forgiven.

My other allium-type flower is also blooming.  Spaerocephalon, which coincidentally is also the longest word I know how to spell, are raspberry coloured 'drumsticks'.  The 'it' plant at Hampton Court last year, I of course also succumbed to their charms and bought three.  Happily three have come up, so they have proven themselves more reliable than the mohicans.

Sphaerocephalons are a lovely raspberry colour, and a nice compact drumstick shape,
they do however have a faint pong of onions

If you want to buy a plant that is attractive to bees, this is hands down it.  I remember at the show seeing one of the layer cake displays absolutely swarming with bees.  Heaving, jostling, it was like a nightclub on a Saturday night.  It resulted in one of my favourite pictures.

Bees are particularly fond of sphaerocephalons, there is always one in residence

But even with my meagre offering of just three bulbs has them flocking.  Virtually every time I go down there a bee is in residence, working away.  The raspberry colour of these is what really makes them.  Everywhere I read it says plant them in great drifts for a sea of colour at height.  Thats a little difficult to achieve with only three.  I do however have two small pots of baby bulbs which didn't flower this year but hopefully will next year when they get big enough.  Then I shall get my drift.

I bought three of these lovely summer drummer flowers, a particularly pretty variety

So all in all I am very happy with my little collection of alliums.  However, as ever I have grand expansion plans.  Despite the slight whiff of onions or leeks that accompany especially the sphaerocephalons, I want more.  I have already bought three summer drummer bulbs, a classic allium that is frankly, rather pretty.  It has quite an open structure and white, touched with pink, in colour.  I bought summer drummer at Hampton Court, and would have bought other varieties but none of the nurseries brought the ones I wanted.  I have my eyes on allium bizarre, its crazy.  Kinda pretty, definitely nuts, I just think this would totally liven up a border. I haven't been able to find somewhere to buy these yet, but when I do I will be buying a few.  They are only small so im sure I could stick in a few here and there.

Bizarre by name, and bizarre by nature.  Still pretty though

Another crazy allium I have my eyes on is 'hair'.  Almost completely green with a small burgundy centre, this is more of a structural rather than pretty addition, but every border needs a bit of structure.  I would also like one or two of these flowerless alliums.  They curl like snakes ready to strike, but do would add a bit of interest.

More of a structural one, but every garden needs a bit of frondy green

Im not all about crazy odd structural alliums though, everybody likes a good pretty flower so I would also like some white-pink decipiens, or cute silverspring.  Space is always a concern, so these may have to wait until I move out, but no doubt I will have bought one of these by allium planting time.

Visiting Hampton Court flower show - show highlights

One of the many weird and wonderful sights at Hampton Court Flower show this year.  Really whoever put this together should be commended for authenticity in the planting, looks real to me  

My absolute favourite day of the year is Hampton Court flower show.  This occurred a few weeks ago, but I have been out of the country and therefore unable to share my thoughts and pictures until now.  This year was my second year on the trot, third in total at Hampton.  Specialty flowers, discounted seeds, nice displays, whats not to like?  Hot weather and slow meanderers, that's what.  Both times I have been recently it has been baking, which is obviously better than wet, but marquees are no places to be with hundreds of people all getting their sweat on.  At least this year I wasn't visibly swaying in the heat from tonsillitis, because that was torturous last year.

I get that gardening is generally the preserve of those more advanced in years, and they generally walk slower, but wow could these people really crawl.  Oh but they sure can get shovy when they want to look at the seeds your currently stationed in front of.  Quite tested my patience which eventually ran out when a man with a big fancy camera decided to do a full photo shoot of a couple of butterflies sat on some daisies I wanted to buy.  I let him take five or six shots from various angles, not in quick succession I might add, before I nabbed the daisy.  It didn't go down well.

So I thought I would share a few snaps of some of the interesting things I saw at Hampton, and then in another couple of posts I will do plants I would like to purchase, and ones I did.  It does not contain many of the show gardens as im not really into them, but there is still the odd delightful display here and there.  I also don't profess to have gone round the whole thing.  There comes a point when the only thing you want to see is the inside of the car to go home.

Who doesn't love a ten foot high big ball of alliums? Just excuse the random
green reindeer in the front

I love the way this nursery showcased their alliums, grouping them together to make super alliums.  They look so wonderfully tactile and I would have loved to whip out a set of steps and nipped up there for a feel.  Also very helpful if your looking for an allium stand from afar.  I wonder why they didn't use more varieties? But still, very cool.  Except the strange green wire reindeer; not cool. Totally don't get that bit.

One half of the old-and-new greenhouse, looking in from outside.  Could easily be the scene of some period drama, romance blossoming in the old lean-too, if only

This pond featured in one of the show gardens.  The inky blackness really shows off the yellow flowers in particular.  I thought it was bizarre that the water appears black because it is actually coloured red.  Not sure anybody would really want a red pond in their garden

One stand seemed to consist of a greenhouse which you could walk through, which was fun.  One half was all old and rundown with plants climbing through the windowless house and broken pots and things.  The other was a spic and span modern greenhouse, presumably showing how it could be restored?  Who knows, the meaning, as always, was completely lost on me.  Personally I would rather the rickety old side because its pretty and romantic, although not conducive for turning tomatoes red.

Meadow grasses combined with herbaceous borders to create... well frankly a little bit of a mess.  I still like it though, but it vaguely makes me want t get in their and weed, and I don't have a tidy garden.

Only two of the show gardens really grabbed my attention.  This one appealed because I like the concept of merging herbaceous borders with meadow grasses.  I can't say it completely works, its best in this photo, but from another angle its almost entirely herbaceous border with random bits of long grass poking through, which looks a tad odd.  I would like to incorporate more grass into my garden, so maybe there is something to learn here.

This is every girls dream, big lusty borders of beautiful flowers, any armful would make quite the boquet.  Id happily take this home.  As long as I could sneak in the odd tomato here and there

The other garden was in my opinion by far the best.  I can't remember which country this was based on, and to be honest I can't really see that it matters.  What matters is that it was really really pretty, which is not something you see in a show garden that often.  They all have hidden meaning and messages and try and be new and different.  Sometimes its refreshing when somebody just embraces girly flowers wholeheartedly.  It would be a nightmare to prune and deadhead, and would only look like this for five minutes before it all gets overgrown, but still its visually pleasing.

Very whimsical, except the front of that hut thing, lets not even talk about that, focus instead on the green

Actually having said there was only two, this one did make me smile.  More like a river at the bottom of the garden in the section you don't really bother with, rather than a garden, I enjoyed the reference to Winnie the Pooh on the bridge, as this is near where I live.

This for me is what Hampton is all about, the layered allium displays.  I love them.
I didn't manage to take as good pictures this year as I did last, but you get the idea

And finally to the strangest thing I saw at hampton.  There literally are no words.
We all know what this looks like, there is no need to go there, but i just don't get why?!!

And finally to alliums.  I wish they grew like this in the garden like a layer cake, but alas this must be constructed.  Alliums just work so well layered up like this, and for me its the enduring image of Hampton.  I just wish I had enough to make one myself!  

Rosenbachianum, white giant and allium flowers

A shot into the centre of a rosenbachianum, very pretty, and shows the airy nature of the flower stalks

In my last post of alliums I talked about the growing.  This time im going to actually cover the big flowery balls of joy themselves.  As I said in my last post, the alliums are coming in waves so the last two varieties are not out yet.  The first three have virtually been and gone, shame.

Rosenbachianum is less of a solid ball and more of a cluster, but equally at pretty

Up close and personal the little flowers are super cute

The first one out was purple Rosenbachianum.  The main difference between this variety and the purple ones I had previously is the density of the flowers.  The individual flower stalks that make up the ball of flower are really long and radiate out from a central point.  This makes the flower appear much less dense, which is nice, but they are beginning to look slightly raggedy now they are fading. As the flowers do start to fade they are taking on a slightly claret tone to the purple, which is lovely.  The separated spokes makes this more delicate and airy than the more dense balls of other varieties, which I suppose is good in terms of variety although I think I prefer the dense balls slightly more myself.

I think this shows the true solid thickness of the massive stem of white giant.  More of
a tree than an allium, with a handy bee attached

As usual the bees love a good allium

The second variety to make an appearance was white giant.  With this one the clue is in the name.  They are white, they are giant.  The balls themselves are bigger and the stems are so thick, and not to mention tall!  A solid pair of scissors will be needed to hack those stems down when they are finished.  These are of the dense ball type, but pure driven white in colour, which is a nice change as everything else out allium-wise was purple.  These show up the bees particularly nicely, I know that seems an odd thing to consider, but their little yellow and black stripey jackets contrast against the white a treat.

I used to think alliums should be purple but actually the white contrasts really well, and actually shows up the bees more.  The flowers are very evenly spread across the ball

Got to love a cheeky bug snuggled in amongst the flowers.  This shows the way the unknown original variety opens, in a very solid way

Lastly but not least, we have my originals.  These have definitely multiplied as I now have about five flower heads when I believe only three original bulbs were purchased.  This is all good as far as I am concerned, the more flowery balls the better in my eyes!  I used to think I had bought the most boring type of allium as it is standard purple, however having bought a few more varieties I can now fully appreciate their charms.  They are very solid, and very purple.  Rather than the airy fairy quality of the rosenbachianum, these are tightly packed, and its this density that allows you to appreciate the subtle differences in colour between each individual flower.  Plus, these are the bees favourite, don't ask me why!  These also open very differently to the rosenbachianum.  All the unopened green buds are exposed and then each one individually pops out until the whole ball fills out, so its interesting to watch.

Unlike the rosenbachianum this one has very close together flowers and comes out in a progressive way, making most definitely a ball

A view across some of the alliums, with the veg patch behind.
I haven't the room to spread it out

With these three varieties almost over I now look forward to hopefully seeing a red mohican or two, and some sphaerocephalon, am so excited about those!  What this does reveal though is that when you go to a garden show and all the alliums are out together its very misleading as when grown in the garden they all come out at different times!

Alliums - from sprout to bud

The first peek of allium snout back in January, they snuck up when I wasn't looking

Last year at Hampton Court I decided to seriously add to my stocks of alliums.  The mother bought three bulbs last time we went several years ago now, and we like them equally so there was little disagreement to buying more.  Who wouldn't like a ball of flower dancing about on a long stalk.

The allium patch early in the year, you can see the pale washed out succulent variety just appearing, I neglected to photograph it again so I can't show you the bird damage

The flower heads emerging.  You can tell these are related to onions, and you can just see my netting in the background

I have no idea what the original bulbs were, but at the show I bought Rosenbachianum, white giant and red mohican. I bunged them in holes and waited for the magic to happen.  Theoretically I don't have the right soil for alliums, but it has never held us back before so I had high hopes.  The first sign of life came in the form of leaves in mid January.  One variety had shiny leaves while the other had what I would describe as being succulant, juicy looking leave, light grey, and to be perfectly honest, rather floppy.  These succulant leaves were promptly butchered by something.  I assumed slug damage so slug peleted accordingly.  When this didn't have any affect suspicions turned to a fat pidgeon who had taken to strutting round the garden in that area.  The pesky bird had taken a fancy to pecking my leaves.  In order to prevent this I had to net the whole area which seemed to have the desired effect.  So there you go, pidgeons like alliums, who knew.  The one downside of protecting the leaves like this is the netting made the leaves a bit cramped and the went weirdly wrinkly, like somebody who had been in the bath too long.

The white giant bud just after splitting, and about to start popping out the individual little flowers

The first little flower is out! This is obviously a purple one

In early April the fat flower buds started appearing in amongst the leaves and quickly shot up on their spindly stems.  At this point I became aware that there only appeared to be two varieties distinguishable, but I bought four so was a little confused.  Anyway the buds ripened and finally started splitting a couple of weeks ago.  I love the way alliums do this.  The skin on the buds starts drying out and becomes thin and stretched like paper, before finally splitting.  Then a tuft of flowers emerges before the whole ball fills out at a later date. They don't all come out like this of course, the ones the mother had before completely emerge and then slowly flower over time.

That lovely stage when the casing is all dry and papery and starts splitting

This one came out in a lovely tuft, like a paintbrush, with the flowers all curled up in concentric spirals and already open when the shuck, shucked. Pretty!

And thats where im going to leave it, what a tease.  Il be back with pictures of the individual varieties another time.

Planting Allium bulbs

Our display of alliums from this year, which hopefully will be added to

At the same time as planting my Sphaerocephalon bulbs, which by the way is the longest word that I know how to spell, I also planted all my other Allium bulbs.  Unfortunately my other bulbs were considerably larger, and therefore far harder work than the Sphaerocephalon tiddlers were.  Two of the paper bags of bulbs had been written on so I knew what they were, but I only rediscovered what the third ones were by revisiting this post, Red mohicans it turns out, I can't wait!  The others are 'White Giant' and 'Rosenbachianum'.

White Giant bulbs, you can tell, they are giant

Red Mohicans bulbs, quite possibly the best allium if only for the name

Planting Alliums is, as far as Im aware, hardly rocket science.  The stumbling block was the same as for the Sphaerocephalon; sand.  I kept reading that they want well drained soil, so to give them the best chance of being the most amazing display they could be I felt I should try and give them a little drainage.  The mother did not bother herself with such things when she planted her allium bulbs a couple of years ago and they have been great every year, so maybe its not as important as people make out.  But still if Im going to make all the effort of excavating a hole, Im going to try and do it right.
In one of my paper bags was a slip of paper giving instructions on how to plant the bulbs, I can't remember exactly what It said but basically I believe the rule is the hole wants to be two and a half times the size of the bulb- great for Sphaerocephalons- less so for White Giants.  How I cursed those great big bulbs after I had dug a few holes.  I trowelled the soil that came out of the holes into a bucket of sand, mixed the two up and put some underneath the bulbs and then filled the holes up with it too.  I imagine it worked out at one part sand to two parts soil.  Hopefully thats what they wanted and I will have a fabulous display.

No not evidence of a mole, Iv been digging holes

It annoys me faintly when I read how to plant Alliums because all the gardeners in the know say 'oh I plant them in drifts, don't plant them in two and threes it will look dotty', says somebody with probably acres of garden and no limitations.  Some of us aren't so lucky.  There is not space to be filled, space has to be found.  'Drifts' have to fit themselves round the mother's established bushes, and by round I mean I hacked a great chunk off the bottom of two bushes to reveal a patch of soil to wedge my Alliums into.  I also found another patch, so I will get two 'drifts', or 'clumps' as they are in my book.

I unfortunately can't remember what variety the mother's alliums are but they made a good display

Wet bee, poor thing

Planting Sphaerocephalon bulbs

A display of Sphaerocephalon bulbs at Hampton Court flower show in June, covered in bees, which is always a good thing in my book

There are times when one wants to be gardening, and there are times when one does not.  This time of year definitely falls under the second bracket, I spend the entire winter period on a constant quest for warmth and am generally to be found in at least three layers, indoors.  However, one cannot expect a lovely display come the Spring from bulbs unless one braves the cold bleakness, wraps up warm and digs in, literally.  I try and keep in mind what I am hoping to achieve and it can be basically summed up by this picture of Sphaerocephalon bulbs at Hampton Court earlier this year.  A mass of raspberry coloured balls of joy smothered in bees, but they aren't just going to pop out of the ground of their own accord.

Ideally as Sphaerocephalons are part of the Allium family, I think they want to be planted from late September to October time, but due to excessive weekend rainfall I didn't get mine in until a week or two ago.

I was also delayed by the need to buy grit.  Despite already having Alliums happily growing in the garden, a little research informed me that they like 'well drained soil' which is categorically not something I have.  Up to this point when a plant has required a little extra drainage I have mixed in some sand from an old bag that was bought for my sandpit many many moons ago, but the Alliums i felt needed the proper stuff.  I had no idea how difficult it would be to find horticultural grit, I thought it was pretty common stuff, Monty Don certainly throws the stuff about enough to give that impression.  Only after searching through several garden centres did I finally find some, which came in like eight different grades of size, which is faintly ridiculous but there we go.

So picture the scene, Im standing in the pouring rain deciding between sand, grit, fine grit, light gravel etc, finally make my choice, go to grab a bag, and what do you know; the ink on the bag is only water soluble.  Hands were green, like Shrek.  I had to be allowed into the staff area to access the sink, and even then they were tinged.  Isn't that a stupid bit of packaging?

My horticultural sand, I would have dug out some but it has been terribly wet and I don't want to be green

Anyway I digress.  So the weathers held for five minutes, bag of grits to hand, its time to get the Sphaerocephalon in.  If you read my post on what I bought at Hampton Court you will know that my bulbs came ready planted, in full bloom in fact, in a small plastic pot.  Once home I didn't really know what to do with them.  I didn't want to plant them as they were all clumped together but didn't feel I could separate them out while in flower.  So in the pot they stayed until now.  The balls of flower are long gone but I left the seed heads on, even though you are meant to remove them from Alliums to help them flower, which seems to have caused an interesting situation.

I had about five flowers, so I expected when I emptied the pot out to find five fairly smallish bulbs amongst the soil, but I didn't.  Instead there were dozens of tiny little bulbs, mainly near the top of the pot, some small, some larger but no five looking particularly well developed.  Somebody had been reseeding behind my back, although I don't know if all these new bulbs are from this year or last year, and what to do with them now.  The very smallest, maybe twenty five tiny bulbs, I decided were far too small for the garden so I potted them back up into small terracotta pots in a compost and grit mix and we will see what they do next year.  The remaining largest seven or eight bulbs, still only the size of a small road bean, I buried in the garden.

The rule of thumb with Alliums seems to be to plant them at a depth two and a half times the size of the bulb, but for a Sphaerocephalon thats not terribly deep.  So instead I winged it, dug maybe three inches down chucked a soil grit mix in the bottom, inserted the tiny bulb and filled up the holes.  If you read about this variety on the internet websites always say 'look great in drifts with long grass'.  Well I don't really have drifting room, so a space was created for an Alium patch in a sunny spot between two bushes and that will have to do.

Doesn't look like much now, just two sodden pots, but hopefully the bulbs in these will mature 

Did I mention these sink?  Oh my god onions!  I know they theoretically are part of the onion family, but where as other Allium bulbs just have the appearance of onions, these have the smell, possibly because they were damp and in soil.  It was almost too much, the hands, no longer green, did not now smell too fresh.  The smell was clearly so overwhelming I actually forgot to take a picture of the bulbs and they are planted now so your going to have to use your imagination.

Hard work done, if you can call digging a tiny hole for one of these bulbs hard work and it was back off indoors for a cup of tea and a warm up, for five minutes until I was back out planting all my other bulbs, more on which will be coming soon.  Now we just have to sit back and wait for Spring and Summer, a depressing thought.