unknown huge allium?

[pontus]

Hello everyone,

Last may i saw some very tall deep purple large ball headed allium hybrids in a garden. These where towering above a hedge which was 150 cm's tall, so the flowerstalks must have been at least 150-170 cm's tall. They where very compact heads, but not as big as for example globemaster, and not the same purple pink colouration, more towards the allium purple sensation type colour.

Unfortunately they where next to a very busy trafficed road, and there was no way to stop and park the car to go over to take a closer look or even a photograph, so unfortunately this description is all i can provide. I was struck by the height but also by the intensity of the purple colouring, and am trying to find this allium hybrid...

any ideas would be very welcome

i can already say that it was not giganteum, "beauregard", "globemaster", "round and purple" or aflatunense..

Pontus

[bulborum]

Allium altissimum Goliath ?
or there are some giant A. stipitatum seedlings

Roland

[pontus]

allium stipitatum i think is a good guess, but i did not know that could get that tall?

[pontus]

they where very similar to the colour and compact ball shape of these dark allium giganteum in this picture i found :

http://www.google.ch/imgres?num=10&hl=fr&biw=826&bih=489&tbm=isch&tbnid=wYw-EGi0qJg-sM:&imgrefurl=http://www.gardensandplants.com/uk/plant.aspx%3Fplant_id%3D158&docid=RVhV7u9raTeX6M&imgurl=http://www.gardensandplants.com/images/plants/Allium%252520giganteum.jpg&w=408&h=450&ei=Tq8jUOLJJ-eJ4gTm3YAg&zoom=1

but when i grew giganteum back in 2001, my plants did not look like this at all...they where a more pale purple, and not this compact..but maybe i got mislabelled bulbs?

[bulborum]

Most Allium giganteum pictures on internet aren't correct
because the bulbs are often replaced by Allium Gladiator
or even with A. Purple sensation (both very cheap bulbs and more profit )

The bulbs from Allium giganteum are easy to recognise
see pictures

I don't think it is Allium altissimum Goliath
they are not often seen

Roland

[pontus]

Here is the 2 pictures i took back in 2001 of my supposedly allium giganteum. Is it allium giganteum do you think? the flowerheads where quite small, and not really perfectly round. also, not a very tall plant, at the most 100-120 cm's perhaps, and it did not grow very vigorousely

[pontus]

But its not very similar to this picture of giganteum found on the internet...but this one (internet) is closer in shape and colour to what i saw, although the ones i saw where a bit darker. i think on this picture they must have alktered or boosted teh colour  abit, as it looks unnatural....is this one true giganteum then? or is it gladiator?

those bulbs in your picture look excellently healthy!

[pontus]

so to sum up, i am (i think) looking for bulbs of the allium hybrid which looks the closest possible to the one i found on the internet, and not like my old "giganteum" from 2001...

[bulborum]

Difficult to say from these pictures
just have a look for the bulbs
they are the easiest way to see
and A. gigantheum is one of the last big ones to flower
here often end May begin June

Roland

[bulborum]

I forgot

Allium giganteum can have 700-1000 flowers in the flower-head
they start small but the diameter is growing
because the new flowers grow over the old ones
here they make hardly seeds

Roland

[bulborum]

I think the best is Allium Ambassador
see picture
A friend is the grower