Is it best to plant alliums from bulbs as opposed to a plant?

[BlueSp1re]

Obviously cost wise it is but I love them. Don’t want to shell out for them as a plant if they’ll do less well long term.

Just answered myself after looking at price difference! Couldn't justify the cost. Will have to wait to plant bulbs.

I planted bulbs last year and they all came up and flowered, they have come back up this year too. I’m not that great at gardening so I’m surprised I haven’t killed them 🤣. I would love to buy one of the XXL bulbs but they are a bit pricey and I’m not sure one would be enough.

I'm a novice and bought bulbs from either lidl or aldi in march. They are in a large pot and the flower head is already coming up and about 20cm high. I assume they will grow taller before actually flowering.

You could try scouring place that might still have some bulbs for sale- B&M, homebargains, lidl, aldi, Morrisons etc. They should come up quicker with the warmer weather on the way.

You can grow them from seed too.

I bought a load when on sale last year, signed up for on line offers and waited till the bulbs were half price.

Plant them deeply and they should keep coming back if they are happy. They self seed in a friends garden, in mine they aren’t so happy...so I tend to plant some new bulbs ever6 year.

I got 3 of the huge bulbs this year too, can’t wait to see them come up.

We bought allium plants when we purchased our current house three years ago (bought about 30-40, so really expensive 🙄). They were a mix of purple sensation and gladiator. The first year they all flowered, next year only a handful did.

As we were doing work to that area of the garden I dug them all up and temporarily put them back into pots, then replanted them last year when they all flowered again.

This year one - yep, one! - has a bud 😪

Last autumn we bought another load of purple sensation but bulbs, approximately 65. These went straight in the ground and currently virtually all have buds.

We also bought three Globemasters (huge allium bulbs) at the end of 2019 and put these into a large planter. They flowered last year and this year have multiplied so we now have five buds coming through 😃

I plan to get more (white this time) and will definitely buy bulbs rather than established plants.

Thank you, that’s really interesting. Will definitely wait I think.