Allium Flower – a Bloom that could add Color to Your Garden

Gardening is a hobby enjoyed by many, and there is nothing like having a beautiful garden bursting with blooms during the summer. Alliums are an excellent choice of flower for your garden because of the bright colors and the timing of the plant’s blooming. You would probably not know by looking at them, but Alliums belong to the same family as the onion. The large “flower” of the Allium upon closer inspection will reveal that it is actually made up of many small flowers that form a colorful globe. After the plant has bloomed it will begin to wither, usually in mid to late summer. After removing the dead foliage, you can usually see the live bulbs remaining in the soil. If they remain in the ground, they will lie dormant until the next spring when they will again produce sprout and grown into a plant to produce beautiful flowers once again.

Allium flowers can be many different colors: purple, white, and violet are popular and generally easy to find either at a nursery or even at an online retailer. One of the most popular varieties of Allium flower is called Purple Sensation. It produces a deep violet-purple bloom at the end of a stem that is 30 to 40 inches in length. The flowers of the plant are great for attracting butterflies and bees to your garden, and are also a deterrent to many pests. This is true of many of the plants in the Allium family, and they can be a great alternative to more harsh methods of dealing with garden pests.

In addition to their variety of colors, Allium flowers also come in many different sizes. The purple flowers are generally the largest while blue flowers are generally the smallest. The largest Allium flower is the gigantum which is of purple color.
In addition to the possibilities of the standard flowering Alliums, you may also consider growing some of the edible varieties. Chives are one example of an edible variety of Alliums and could be easily grown among your flower plants as they also provide beautiful blooms. Little known to most people, garlic also produces blooms, as well as does the onion plant. Any of these plants would provide beautiful blooms in the spring as well as food later in the fall and would nicely complement any garden.

Be sure to take a look at this page about allium flowers, as well as this one on flowering shrubs.

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