I'd be having a dig around to see if there are squashy rotten bulbs down there. It doesn't sound promising, but occasionally bulbs will skip a year so who knows.

I agree it doesn't look good. I planted some of those last fall too. They actually came up before all of my other alliums but are just beginning to open up now. All of my other alliums are done for colour other than Christophii and a couple of Bulgaricums which are in too much shade and falling over.

I think I found them.

They're smaller than I expected them to be. The stems aren't much bigger than the chives in the back yard. Is that them?

There's a few teensy tiny buds on the end of a few, but they're more shaded by the others than I expected, particularly now that they're falling over from the rain =:(

That's them. They look just like chives only I spread mine out so they aren't in a clump. Mine are about 16" tall and they still haven't opened. They sure are slow. I will take a pic when they do open. From what I have seen the flower looks like chives too.