Tiger303 wrote:
Bought these tiny alium bulbs at tatton park flower show in 2003,
and
last year both varieties (sorry don't know name, haven't seen them
in
catalogues or anywhere since) looked beautiful with blue/purplish
star/ball flower heads. left the flower heads on, and seed formed
which i gave to a friend with a greenhouse to see if he could grow.
(he's planning to start this year)

anyway these 10 alium bulbs are in a small plastic window box, and
this year they don't appear to be doing anything. Yes the leaves
came
up as normal, infact theres lots of new bulblets formed around main
bulbs, which could be issue as window box is small. But last year
i'm
sure the flower heads were nearly opened by now as the heat from
the
house meant they flowered early.

pretty sure i gave it some liquid feed after they flowered, but i'm
wondering why they're not flowering this year. Do aliums repeat
flower/ Do you have to take the flower heads off and stop seed
forming, or is it size of window box?

I'm wondering whether i should just plant them in garden now or in
autumn and hope they'll come back. Be surprised if the little
bulblets
never did anything

so any tips on getting aliums to repeat flower would be
apprecaited,
as the larger varieties in the front lawn are looking very healthy
with fat flower heads increasing in size every day, but want to
make
sure they flower year after year

thanks for your help

Sounds as though they may be hungry, as you suggest. I wonder if they
had a good enough growing period after flowering last year to build
up their strength -- all bulbs want that, and a small container isn't
the place to get it.

For my money, bulbs in containers are a once-only show, after which
they need to be planted out in the garden to let them recover (which
not all will). Tough customers like alliums should recover in a year
or two in a sunny spot; and your baby bulbs will grow on to flowering
size if planted out -- they may even do better than the parents.

The ones your friends gets from seed should be fine (three-four
years? I don't know).

The ones you've already got outside will go on for ever if they like
the site: if they do, they'll need dividing every three years or so
when the leaves die down, like daffodils.

Probably best to dead-head to stop them seeding; but the dried
seed-heads look very good in flower-arrangements (I had one bunch in
the house for ten years!).

--
Mike.