DIY Decorating with Dried Alliums, Your Garden's Readymade Baubles - Gardenista
Photography by Clare Coulson except where noted. Alliums may well be the jewels of the summer garden, springing into flower from early in the season and then standing with their ornate seedheads for many months more. In summer at just over a foot tall, Allium christophii is short enough to nestle in amongst low-growing perennials and grasses, and they look stunning with swaying tufts of Stipa tenuissima and spires of verbascums, as seen here at Beth Chatto’s dry garden in Essex, U.K. The most familiar allium to many gardeners will be A. hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’. The allium’s star shaped seedheads are beautiful when left bare. But ideally, to keep them in perfect form, remove them from the garden sometime in late summer and then stand or hang them to preserve their shape. In the my kitchen, heads of alliums are arranged through a framework of branches or in pots. Secure the main branches firmly to the wall (a hook will support the key branches) and then weave microlights around them. The featherlight allium balls can be placed carefully between branches where they won’t need any further support. Arthur Parkinson combines dried alliums with dried hydrangea, honesty and a colorful aviary of glass songbirds. Photograph by Arthur Parkinson. A bowl of paperwhite narcissi provide a scented contrast to branches and seedheads. Perfect seedheads sprayed gold can be stored and used for several years. Photograph by Arthur Parkinson.