A Charming Border Idea with Alliums, Garden Pinks & Wallflowers

Spring Combination Ideas, Plant Combinations, Flowerbeds Ideas, Spring Borders, Summer Borders

Here is a charming plant combination that can be enjoyed for weeks and is fairly easy to replicate at home. It combines the cheerful and sometimes unusual blossoms of Alliums, Garden Pinks, Sage, and Wallflowers for a color explosion from late spring to late summer. Add a few Stonecrops (Sedums) to extend the color fireworks into fall!

Most plants are deer and rabbit-resistant, drought-tolerant, and have won prestigious awards. Enjoy!

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Garden Information

Hardiness	6 - 9
Heat Zones	5 - 9
Exposure	Full Sun
Season of Interest	Spring (Late), Summer (Early, Mid, Late)
Maintenance	Low
Water Needs	Average
Soil Type	Loam, Sand
Soil pH	Alkaline, Neutral
Soil Drainage	Well-Drained
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Plant of Merit, Showy
Tolerance	Drought, Deer, Rabbit
Attracts	Butterflies, Hummingbirds
Landscaping Ideas	Beds And Borders
Garden Styles	Informal and Cottage, Traditional Garden

Plants In This Garden

Nectaroscordum siculum (Sicilian Honey Garlic)

Robust and extraordinarily beautiful, Nectaroscordum siculum (Sicilian Honey Garlic) displays showy clusters of gracefully drooping bell-shaped flowers combining cream, pink and green tints rising on a tall, leafless stem atop blue-gray, twisted basal leaves

Hardiness	5 - 10
Exposure	Full Sun, Partial Sun
Seasons	Spring (Late), Summer (Early)
Height	3' - 4' (90cm - 120cm)
Spread	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Characteristics	Dried Arrangements, Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Showy

Sedum 'Herbstfreude' ('Autumn Joy')

Hard to miss in the garden! Vigorous, hardy, carefree, good-looking, with a season of interest lasting more than 6 months from early summer until well into winter, who could resist?

Hardiness	3 - 9
Exposure	Full Sun
Seasons	Summer (Mid, Late), Fall, Winter
Height	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Spread	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Plant of Merit, Showy

Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' (Sage)

Multiple award-winner, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ is a favorite of many gardeners for its unique, glowing dark purple stems and stunning, vertical spikes of rich, violet-blue flowers appearing in late spring or early summer

Hardiness	4 - 9
Exposure	Full Sun
Seasons	Spring (Late), Summer (Early, Mid)
Height	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Spread	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Plant of Merit, Showy

Allium schubertii (Ornamental Onion)

Award-winning Allium schubertii is grown for its unique and attractive display of loose, star-shaped, rose-purple flowers that bloom in giant, spherical umbels, up to 9-12 in. wide (22-30 cm), in late spring to early summer.

Hardiness	4 - 10
Exposure	Full Sun
Seasons	Spring (Late), Summer (Early)
Height	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Spread	6" - 8" (15cm - 20cm)
Characteristics	Dried Arrangements, Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Plant of Merit, Showy

Allium fistulosum (Scallion)

Cultivated both for its culinary uses and its ornamental value, Allium fistulosum (Scallion) is a clumping, slowly spreading, evergreen, perennial onion. In late spring to early summer, it produces attractive, ivory-white, globular to somewhat elongated flowers, packed with up to 100 flowers.

Hardiness	5 - 9
Exposure	Full Sun, Partial Sun
Seasons	Spring (Late), Summer (Early)
Height	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Spread	6" - 1' (15cm - 30cm)
Characteristics	Showy, Evergreen

Dianthus plumarius 'Laced Monach' (Pink)

Blooms enthusiastically! Dianthus ‘Laced Monarch’ is a very charming modern Border Pink with double purple-pink blooms richly laced with burgundy.

Hardiness	3 - 10
Exposure	Full Sun
Seasons	Spring (Late), Summer (Early, Mid, Late)
Height	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Spread	1' - 2' (30cm - 60cm)
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Fragrant, Showy, Evergreen

Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve' (Wallflower)

This fabulous Wallflower (Erysimum x linifolium) should be in every garden! Easy to grow, it provides months of highly colorful blooms from mid-spring through fall. Brilliant, rich mauve four-petalled flowers are held in a dense raceme well above the attractive gray-green foliage that is evergreen in mild winter areas.

Hardiness	6 - 9
Exposure	Full Sun
Seasons	Spring (Mid, Late), Summer (Early, Mid, Late), Fall
Height	2' - 3' (60cm - 90cm)
Spread	2' - 3' (60cm - 90cm)
Characteristics	Cut Flowers, Plant of Merit, Showy, Evergreen

How Many Plants Do I Need?

Explore Great Plant Combination Ideas

Sedum (Stonecrop) Salvia (Sage) Erysimum (Wallflower) Dianthus (Carnation) Allium

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Learn About These Genera

Allium (Ornamental Onion)

Hardy Perennial Salvias (Sage)

GAP Photos/Elke Borkowski

While every effort has been made to describe these plants accurately, please keep in mind that height, bloom time, and color may differ in various climates. The description of these plants has been written based on numerous outside resources.