Plant Focus: Ornamental Alliums
One of the most widely recognised and used perennials, the ornamental Allium is a tough, easy to grow plant with its big bold flowers and architectural shape making it a versatile addition to your borders.
Ornamental Alliums are often planted as bulbs in Autumn and do best in a sunny, well-drained position. They will flower in spring/early summer, so are great at bridging the gap between spring displays and summer herbaceous planting. Alliums come mostly in varying shades of purple or white, with a huge variety in height and size of the flowering head – you are bound to find one suitable for your border! Some of the most often used and popular varieties include ‘Purple sensation’, ‘Globemaster’, and the white ‘Mount Everest’.
More reasons to love ornamental Alliums
Even after the flower has faded the seed heads are attractive in their own right, and provide continuing structural interest 
Alliums are great for pollinators, producing pollen and nectar for a wide range of bees including the honeybee
Where to use ornamental Alliums
The bold shape and colour of Alliums means that they can be used in almost any planting scheme. They work wonderfully as exclamation marks of colour amongst structural topiary shrubs in a very simple contemporary planting scheme or in a prairie style garden with ornamental grasses – here, their ridged structure gives a bold contrast to the airy nature of the grasses. I like to use them as early summer colour in mixed herbaceous borders too, flowering above the newly emerging foliage of summer perennials and their seed heads can be left as structural interest once the summer showstoppers take over.
A great all rounder for some big bold colour in any sunny border.