Ornamental alliums

Should I be getting these in the ground now?

Or can I hold off for another week?
Im away tomorrow and Im trying to narrow my to do list.


Also, should I get my dahlias and gladioli corms up as well while Im at it?

Im in London and its pretty cold today.
The predicted weather over the next 10 days: high = 18'c, low = 8'c

Thanks.

 

Hi Melinda

Yes get them in quick they will start rooting within a day or two, if you are planting were the dahlias are just dig them up and start to dry them off same with the glads.

I know they say with Dahlias leave till first frost (and you probable wont get one because its London) until the New Year !!!! but I have dug them up in October and have never had any problems if I had to move them because of wanting to put the winter bedding in etc.....


Spruce

 

I would leave the dahlias much longer. How could you bear to cut them down when they are still actively flowering, anyway? Most years we do not get much of a frost till the end of October, sometimes later. Even then, only the foliage gets killed, the tubers will be fine tucked up under the soil. In London, you may not need to bother digging them up at all.


Last year, there was no frost in my area until well into November. Of course, when the freeze came at last, it happened pretty suddenly.

But yeah, get the bulbs in asap. Which reminds me, I haven't done mine yet.

 

Thanks as always for the advice, but I didn't manage to get them in before I left.
Im sitting in a hotel in Accra, Ghana at the moment checking my email and answering a couple of PMs.

Im going to have to make big chances in the way I garden now anyway because I no longer have the time to commit to anything that requires daily or weekly attention.

I'll do a thread some time in the next few weeks and get some advice about drought tolerant plants and shrubs I can't kill.

 

Depending on how the alliums look, I sometime leave them standing for winter interest. Or cut them and use them as a dry arrangement in something.