Disappearing Alliums!

phoebe1989seb

During the spring of 2018 we planted around 30 alliums (mostly Purple Sensation) amongst a similar number of box balls/pyramids on a well-drained, slightly sloping site in our new-to-us garden. That first summer they flowered and all was well.

This spring only approximately 18 of the alliums came up, which was obviously disappointing.

Then, as the season progressed, these began to die back. As we had other things on our somewhat hectic agenda, lol, I confess that the area surrounding the alliums became rather infested with ground elder (an ongoing issue here ) and overlooked.

Eventually just one flowered

Today I've finally begun tackling the ground elder and - having so far cleared an area of around 3 sq m - I've only found one allium bulb!

Are the missing bulbs likely to have rotted away...or what? I imagined the ground elder might be strangling them beneath the soil, but they seem to have completely vanished......

Any ideas folks?

GreenQueen

squirrels? I've certainly lost daffodils and tulips to the little darlings!

phoebe1989seb

GreenQueen wrote: »

squirrels? I've certainly lost daffodils and tulips to the little darlings!

Ah, could be squirrels, we do have loads here (very rural so lots of beasties ). I'd not thought of that. Thanks, GreenQueen!

Davesnave

Badgers dug up daffs I planted but didn't eat them. Not sure if they would eat alliums. If they ate your A aflatuense, the name suggests they'd have a really bad bout of wind!

phoebe1989seb

Davesnave wrote: »

Badgers dug up daffs I planted but didn't eat them. Not sure if they would eat alliums. If they ate your A aflatuense, the name suggests they'd have a really bad bout of wind!

Lol :rotfl:

Primrose

I don't know about disappearing alliums but I used to have a lot of them but now have fewer and whenever I accidentally dig a bulb up when weeding it seems that they grow smaller and smaller every year.

I don,t know if they have a limited life span and this is a normal shrinking process over time. I know some bulbs like Tete a Tete daffodils and snowdrops naturalise over time. Does anybody know whether alliums do this?

phoebe1989seb

Primrose wrote: »

I don't know about disappearing alliums but I used to have a lot of them but now have fewer and whenever I accidentally dig a bulb up when weeding it seems that they grow smaller and smaller every year.

I don,t know if they have a limited life span and this is a normal shrinking process over time. I know some bulbs like Tete a Tete daffodils and snowdrops naturalise over time. Does anybody know whether alliums do this?

Yes! I dug further along the allium bed yesterday and whilst I did find more bulbs (tally is now at approx 26), these are all considerably smaller than those we planted in spring 2018. They were clustered in a smallish area where we'd originally only planted perhaps five.....

I did read online somewhere that Purple Sensation (which most of ours are/were) in particular are prone to only last a few years, but one year is pretty poor - especially as we spent a small fortune on them

Is it worth potting them up for now rather than finding a new/better place in the ground?

-taff

Aliums need a lot of feeding, it may be there just wasn't enough food for them. They should have been planted quite deeply in well draining soil. Did you top dress every year?