Garden Walks with Judy: These alliums are real showstoppers
Showstoppers! There’s no other word for the alliums growing in Srinivasan Rajagopal's garden in Coralville. Huge purple globes on thin stems above the just-opening peonies and the poppies blooming for this Memorial Day weekend.
Alliums are not just ordinary onions. They are related to scallops, garlic, and onions, but the hundreds of different varieties of alliums are classified as ornamental. They have great names, like gladiator and globe master, purple sensation, corkscrew and drumstick.
Easy to grow, not picky about the soil, and love the sun, alliums come in all the purple shades, white, yellow, burgundy, and pink. Best of all, some bloom in late spring, others during summer, and still more like September and October.
Raj has many different allium varieties, from the large, tall plants that grow nearly fifty inches to those a mere eighteen inches. They are a great show!
I was delighted to see also, many of his peonies in bloom. They, too, are spread throughout the border of flowers that extends deep and wide down his backyard, across the bottom, and then winds its way up to the house.
The border is filled with many different plants. The peonies and poppies are there, along with the delicate foxglove, with its white and purple bell-shaped blooms, a magnet for hummingbirds. Lavender-blue phlox, tall iris blooming with many buds yet to break, and deep purple clematis climbing on several trellis keep company with the very English David Austin roses.
Raj likes to buy plants locally from gardening centers and plant sales. Right now, he has flats of petunias, impatiens, salvia, and other annuals that he uses on the border and in pots on his patio.
One of his local buys is a horse chestnut tree. It is blooming now and will sport chestnuts by fall. Chestnut trees are such a rarity and Raj is very pleased with the growth of this one. However, sources say not to eat horse chestnuts, but to look for sweet chestnuts to roast.
On his patio are several containers with water lilies. A blooming pink one caught my eye for its color and shape and the leaves that float with it. I could certainly have one on my terrace, Raj says.
A large pot to hold several gallons of water would be needed. Regular potting soil doesn’t work, so I would need to fill the container half full with sand.
Once they start to grow and reach the top, they will settle among their leaves and bloom until late afternoon. Lilies look exotic and fragile, but they are very hardy really and will come back even after some neglect and live on for years.
Sometimes a garden is so beautiful, so diverse, so lovingly cared for and alive that it reaches all your senses. Raj’s garden is one of those.
Sense-ability gardens? Not really a term, but perhaps it should be. It would define the color, fragrance, softness, and sweetness of the plants and the sounds of the bees, birds, and the gardener's footsteps.
Question? Comment? Email me at Walkswithgarden@gmail.com
Judy Terry is a freelance garden writer who hopes to lead you through many fantastic gardens.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Garden Walks with Judy: These alliums are real showstoppers
