TO totally mutilate the Henry Ford quotation — time was when you could have an allium in any colour, as long as it was purple and spherical.....

Not strictly true, but even a few years ago there was not the huge variety of colour and form that exists today.

Red, white, blue, green and, of course, purple, are out there in garden centres and on-line — joined by shapes, including those resembling lock-down hair styles to ovate heads, the form of a fir cone.

Most are very affordable, but some should really be mollycoddled because they are not cheap.

Take Allium amethystinum (‘Forelock’) from Sarah Raven, for instance.

Unlike the majority of this family, just three bulbs will set you back £11.50 — probably best planted in containers because they are not fully hardy.

All allium, whether they be cheap and cheerful or not so, have several characteristics in common.

They all love full sun, shelter — to stop them blowing over — and hate soggy ground.

Bulbs can be planted from now until late October in free-draining soil, or in a deep container.

In pots, mix equal parts of John Innes No.3 or multi-purpose potting compost and horticultural grit and plant them as you would at the back of a border — at a depth of about four times the diameter of the bulb.

Plant smaller growing allium just three to four inches apart, and taller species at a distance of about 1ft.

It’s best not to plant the bulbs in areas of the garden that are regularly cultivated, as it is so easy to damage the bulbs and they don’t recover well from flesh wounds.

They are also not fond of freshly manured ground.

Another tip is to plant them where their foliage is masked by that of other plants. This is because the leaves do die back at flowering time — although they are forgiving of having their foliage snipped off.

These varieties from Dobies caught my eye because they had a special offer on — but equally eye-catching allium are widely available:

Allium ‘Hair’ — Purple-hearted flowers with crazy green ‘hair’. Flowers June-July. Height 30in (75cm).

Red Mohican — Unusual and striking red flower heads. Flowers May-June. Height up to 1m.

Blue Drumstick — Produces globe-shaped heads of tightly clustered clear-blue florets. RHS Award of Garden Merit winner. Height 2ft (60cm).

Purple Mix — A 20-bulb mix of Nigrum, Purple Sensation and Aflatunense. Flowers May-June.

  • Vanessa Hounsfield e-mailed me a pic of her giant hollyhock following my column of a couple of weeks’ ago.

She tells me it towered to 16ft 5in, which is only a yard or so shorter than the current world record!

“It was my first attempt and I am amazed,” she says.

“I live in Seaview and out of a packet of seeds I sprinkled in a trench with a fence behind and concrete in front, plus poor soil, it was the only one to survive. I didn’t even water it!”