THats funny. I've been letting A. Christophii drop its seeds for 3 years and haven't gotten a seedling yet. On the other hand, last year I ran out of time and space and stuck a handful of L. speciosum rubra in a deck container and THEY obliged with seedlings this year in the same pot.

Supposedly you can germinate alliums and they take between 3 and 5 yrs to bloom. I like to grow from seeds so I would think thats fun.

Allium christophii has seeded prolifically for me, although none of the seedlings has matured to the point of blooming yet (been about 5 years). A. sphaerocephalon also seeds off.

Hi Karen - have any pics of A. chrisophii seedlings? I think I'd know a lily or allium seedling but maybe I've pulled them.

I would like to know, too, about growing from seed. These bulbs are kind of pricey.
I do know that when you get 2 stalks from 1 bulb, you have 2 bulbs under there that can be dug and separated. It doesn't happen often that they multiply like that but I think it means they're happy!

Allium aflatunenense 'Purple Sensation' seeds freely, but I guess it takes 3 to 4 years to produce flowering bulb.
I let them selfseed and this was the first year since the Fall'04 planting when I start seeing them in areas where I'm for sure didn't plant any bulbs.
On another side, original 50 bulbs divided into 3 clumps brought very mixed results in the same 3 years:
-one clump was almost not existent this year producing 4-5 flowers,
-one clump produced around 35-40 'balls' this year,
-and the last one was divided last year (instead of 16-17 original bulbs there were something like 40-45 of all different sizes). Both divided groups produced about 12-13 flowers this spring.
Purple Sensations bulbs are dirt cheap (50@ $8-9 at Costco or HD) and intentionaly grow them from seeds is just a waste of time and not a fun, IMO

Alyrics, I don't have any photos of allium seedlings, but I remember the first time I saw them I wondered why grass was germinating in that bed.

uh-oh - grass? I can't say, will have to keep an eye out next spring near where they are planted.

All the smaller alliums seem to reseed for me like crazy. I've let unifolium run all over the iris patch which doesn't seem to bother the iris at all. Unifolium is a sort of flimsy thing, but its pale pink flowers look pretty with purple, blue & violet iris.

However, Hair, is getting in my hair all over the place. Kinda ugly & I bought it as a conversation piece, but it is growing in the middle of some Spireas now & just loves the Hosta bed, & in the middle of the echinaceas and...

Sphaerocephalon has spread moderately for me (after about 8 years) & all near the original planting location, but recently the bunnies have started eating it down. Weird, I didn't think they liked onions, but I've found them munching of it.

The larger bulbs (I have Globemaster & giganteum) mostly peter out after a few seasons & need to be replaced. Globemaster, the supposedly finicky one, did put out 8 stalks this year & I only bought 5 (expensive) originally, or maybe they are just short giganteums?? They look very similar.

I do have some Christophii that have reseeded, because I removed all the bulbs one season & they're back this year.

Questions for Ego47: how tall are the Purple Sensations & how big are the heads? Are they pinkish purple or bluish purple?

Lilium_guy, here's a picture of Globemaster, does yours look like this?

{{gwi:21706}}