Alliums flowering on balcony railings 12th June 2021 004

That’s a smashing close up, Balcony! Love the pink colouring too.

I agree with Kate ... how pretty they are.

For many years I've only ever had white Alliums on the balcony but when I saw bags of mixed colour Alliums in £Land I though I would get them. As they were supposed to be very short I underplanted 10 pots of Violas on the balcony railings with these.

I was a bit disappointed at first because they didn't seem to be sprouting in the spring. But a few in some of the pots did start, but I continued to feel disappointed because there were so few when I'd planted about 100 little bulbs & it looked like I'd only get about 20! 😞 These turned out to be white only! 😞 But as time went on I discovered that there were more bulbs sprouting which eventually turned out to be purple & yellow! Only now the Violas have succumbed to the teen weeny grey/white aphids & have had to be removed leaving the Alliums looking very much alone & rather out of place! 😞

Nevertheless, the flowers look lovely but would have looked even better growing through little plants like the Violas!

Dreaded Aphids . . . how I detest them all . . . :o(

Don't we all! I have had problems with these little monsters for many years & they have killed 100s of Pansies over the years as well as some other plants. I have a great infestation on the Calla Lily in the kitchen. They attract many ants as well.

I ordered some Neem oil online but it took about 10 days to get here. Then there were no instructions on how to prepare it.😱 No dilution instructions so I had to look it up online. I found a couple of videos that gave me the information I needed so I made up some suspension. I got out a hand sprayer I'd got a couple of years ago but had never used. I filled it up with the suspension but when I went to use it nothing came out!!! 😱 Instead of spray coming out all I got was bubbles going back inside the suspension! 😱

I found an old squeeze bottle in the bathroom & filled that up with the suspension & was able to use that to spray the plants in the kitchen. But it's terribly hard work & make your nails dig into the corners of your finger tips!

I will see if I can find one in town tomorrow.

The trials and tribulations of being a gardener!!