A Little Experiment

Last fall I added allium to the list of bulbs planted in my yard.  They came up beautifully in the spring and I loved the pretty purple ball floating so high above the ground on their tall stalks.


One afternoon a friend and I were talking on my driveway when she pointed to the allium and asked, “Do you spray your flowers?”  I was completely confused by her question and she explained that she and a friend of hers both spray paint their allium after they brown.  She said they look amazing for the rest of the summer.  I was totally surprised by this and a little bit dubious, but even when they browned their form was so pretty in the flowerbed that I decided to try it rather than cut them down.

Some of the flowers had already fallen over so I started on them.  I tried white paint first but didn’t love it.  Not enough presence.  Next I got a beautiful tomato red paint and re-painted them.  Much better.


They sit in a vase in my dining room and I love how they turned out!

For the flowers still standing in the yard I took a piece of cardboard to sort of wrap around each flower and catch as much overspray as possible.  I didn’t want to paint the surrounding plants, concrete, etc.  They’re not perfect, but all of a sudden there’s more color out there and I like the way it looks.  Here are a couple of them mingling with blue delphinium:


My little experiment went well, and will be something to consider doing in future years.  I’m certainly planting more allium!