The Allium List

Alliums are statuesque, reliable and immensely useful, but which varieties should you choose? Val Bourne asks three experts to recommend their favourites

ALLIUMS have come a long way since the 1990s, when every May saw Purple Sensation drifted underneath countless laburnum tunnels. They have remained popular thanks to their immaculate sense of timing, flowering in May or June when colour is scant, before the summer perennials and roses really get going. That’s not all, either: their bee-friendly flowers provide a crisp contrast to green foliage whether in flower border, potager or fruit garden.

Many also offer a tall, vertical presence and all provide interesting seedheads. Better still, they endure and increase from year to year, whether you’re using them as a follow-up act to tulips or as a summer preamble.

The only downside can be their eagerness to self-seed. Recently, however, Dutch breeders have been busy raising sterile, non-seeding forms in a variety of heights and colours— good news, because sterile flowers persist far longer and there are no nuisance self-seeders, but, happily, are equally as popular with bees and butterflies. As ever, if you want the best kinds, this is the time to order.

Alan Street of Avon Bulbs helped to judge the recent Large Allium Trial at RHS Wisley (2014–16). He is the creative talent behind Avon Bulbs and was responsible for putting together 31 Gold Medal-winning displays at the Chelsea Flower Show between 1980 and 2017

l Allium tripedale (syn. Nectaroscordum tripedale)

This species bulb, listed under both names, has rubbery stems topped with elegant clusters of outward-facing, rose-pink flowers in April and early May. These fade to parchment by midsummer. It’s truly perennial, although it increases rather slowly. Height: 4ft

Allium cristophii AGM