I plant mine in full sun and part shade. The ones in full sun do much better. The ones in part shade lean toward the sun.

Mine are planted among other bulbs & perennials. They stick up and bloom while spring bulbs fade away. The leaves do die back, but the large Allium seedheads look good for a long time. Allium cristohphi/albopilosum and schubertii seedheads look good the longest ---well into fall.

If you grow them for cutflowers A. afflatunense & sphaerocephalon will be better buys. Other large ones are too expensive, I think - at least I don't cut my Globemaster or cristophii or schubertii at all....However, someone came along and helped himself to them instead, but that's another story. :-(

I don't know, though how they'll do in your climate.

I think aliums need a cold period to set flowers but I could be wrong. Contact the company you plan to purchase them from and they should let you know. One year I wanted to purchase saffron crocuse from McClure and Zimmerman. They were good enough to contact me to let me know that saffron crocus are not hardy enough for my zone. Any good company will let you know this information. They don't want the complaints by misleading you.

Howdy all,

What I was wondering was since I'm in the hot southwest zone 8 I wanted to know if i needed to water them alot and if I should plant them in full sun or part sun. I'm growing them mainly for the cut flowers.

Thanks a ton,
Bucky

As much sun as you could afford to.
Watering during the growth and bloom period. All other time they could be completely dry.

HI Buckster
I'm Texas 7b /8a. The only allium that is recommended by Neil Sperry Texas gardening for Texas, to come back faithfully is the Drumstick allium. I have mine in full and part sun. As pitimpani said, they lean toward the sun.

These have come back at least 1 year. I assume more. They are in a bed with other plants, so they get watered. I've heard that the big ones don't want to be watered. Last year I planted Globemaster in 2 places, One group of 3 I pulled up and will replant now. The other remained in the soil in a well drained dry area...but not totally dry. I will report back later.

I also have the very small white variety and they multiply like rodents. They don't seem to mind anything I do to them. I hope this helps. Please note that I really like them too. Please report back and share what you learned.
cynthia

Here is a link that might be useful: Drumstick allium