How do I get rid of these alliums?

Goodness only knows, would you like some Japanese anemones?
I don’t know about the meek inheriting the world I think it may be the Sycamore trees inheriting it instead.
Sorry I’m not any help but I thought there might be some comfort in knowing others are suffering too!

You can pull off the unsightly allium leaves, just leaving the flowers if you wish. They will still bloom next year.

PamelaJ1 Thank you - I can sympathise with you also. we have woods at the bottom of the garden which are full of sycamores. Each spring we both spend hours pulling up thousands of seedlings! Between those and the alliums I am at least keeping fit with all the bending and digging!!!

GSM - I have done that in the past but there are literally hundreds of them!

I have/had an allium that infests/infested my garden. It is essentially one tall dark green furled leaf that starts to unfurl a bit when it reaches about a foot, if I let it get that tall. I have no idea what the flower is like. I have never even seen a bud on it. but it turned up in my garden about 15 years ago in a rose bed close to the house, hundreds of them and has been present ever since.

It is now in retreat because I have, for the last 15 years assiduously dug them up bulbs and all and I never ever put the the bulbs or greenery on the compost heap. they go in the black bin, or even food recycling (anaroebic digestion) if it is only a few. This didn't stop them, when they were at their most rampant, spreading over the whole lawn, as well as borders and veg - and I have a big garden.

I am afraid, I think this is the only policy open to the OP, dig them up and dig them up and dig them up, hands and knees with a hand fork. If you do not get the bulbs up you are wasting your time.

Germanshepherdsmum

You can pull off the unsightly allium leaves, just leaving the flowers if you wish. They will still bloom next year.

Ours are gorgeous pink globes. We pull leaves and allow blooms.

I have dipped my rubber gloved finger in weed killer, wandered around and touched weeds at their base. That works quite well.

I have lots of alliums and in one bed - my ‘wild bed’ - they have multiplied amongst masses of oxeye daisies. A lovely sight. I allow buttercups too, in that bed only. And the foxgloves are coming into bloom too. My garden is far from manicured!

Don't let the flower heads become seed heads. In my experience, alliums are the most successful seeders ever!

I'd go for digging up as many as possible and removing flower heads.

As for those sycamore seedlings I find that cutting them off at ground level when they are very young stops them in their tracks. Get after them with a strimmer, AskAlice

The only way I’ve managed do it, for Spanish bluebells in my case, is to cover up the ground fully before they sprout up so the bulbs are weakened and no more bulblets are formed that year, leave the ground cover on all summer, then dig the bulbs out in the autumn. It works really well for large patches of ground, but it’s not pretty. I resorted to using a tarpaulin and covering it with bark to make it less obvious. I cut round the bushes so it got the lurking ones too.
I’ve still got a few clumps, and I also cut all the flower heads and leaves off as soon as they finished flowering, as
the seeds will also move round the garden and start new clumps. They are a pain!

I agree about the digging, digging and digging - my battle in this garden is with grape hyacinths and I'm gradually getting them to 'pretty' rather than 'thugish' proportions.
I had a similar battle with aliums in a previous garden - a carpet of white froth for a week followed by months of dying leaves. Again digging up each year and being ruthless did the trick.

As said above, don't put them on the compost heap - they'll just thank you by spreading throughout the garden.

Germanshepherdsmum

I have lots of alliums and in one bed - my ‘wild bed’ - they have multiplied amongst masses of oxeye daisies. A lovely sight. I allow buttercups too, in that bed only. And the foxgloves are coming into bloom too. My garden is far from manicured!

This is us. We live in farm country with acres of wild flower beds, gravel paths, tall pretty trees, bird feeders, lovely places to sit out - when/if it's ever warm enough for a few days.

That sounds brilliant Norah. The roses are wonderful too this year. All very natural here though - I would never win an award for garden design. Almost everything seeding where it wants is welcome - forgetmenots, alliums, poppies, aquilegias, foxgloves, cow parsley, hardy geraniums, English bluebells, valerian, toadflax, you name it. If it seeds somewhere that means it’s happy there and that’s fine with me.

On Radio 4's Gardeners Question Time Bob Flowerdew states that invasive bulbs cannot survive having their foliage mowed or cut down to soil level repeatedly.

I am happy to have alliums in my garden, but my problem is with Ash seedlings, especially when they grow amongst the rose stems.

Germanshepherdsmum

That sounds brilliant Norah. The roses are wonderful too this year. All very natural here though - I would never win an award for garden design. Almost everything seeding where it wants is welcome - forgetmenots, alliums, poppies, aquilegias, foxgloves, cow parsley, hardy geraniums, English bluebells, valerian, toadflax, you name it. If it seeds somewhere that means it’s happy there and that’s fine with me.

Thank you, our gardens are lovely.

We have many traditional, old fashion 'you name it' flowers.

The roses are now fantastic!

My husband seeds clover in the midst, for nitrogen (and pretty). Same as with crop rotation and clover in farming - sustainability.

I throw coffee grounds on some plants, tea leaves on others, daughters' egg shells, and use huge pots of gathered rain water. I also compost veg waste and dig that into the soil when ready.

Acres of flower beds would be lovely...but my garden is 50ft by 30ft. I do grow lots of bee friendly plants, have raised veg beds and a 6x6 greenhouse and my garden is by no means manicured, but these alliums have rather taken over! You can have too much of a good thing . I had similar with muscari and did do the dig, dig, dig method but I am getting older and my back is complaining.

I can't use anything too toxic as I have a tortoise and although I have tortoise-proofed the bed in question, there is always the chance that she might manage to climb over the barrier. Tortoises are notorious climbers, believe it or not!!!

I'll try to post some pictures, to give you an idea of the scale...

I have a 30ft square area, which has essentially had nothing but an annual cut for the last 30 years, although I did pull nettles out the first year as they threatened to take over.

It has been interesting to see how my 'rewilding' plot has gone. The one thing it is not, is a beautiful wildflower meadow, As time progresses it has been taken over by different plants to the almost total exclusion of everything else, first buttercups, replaced by dandelions, replaced by daisies, eplaced by cow parsley. I wait to see what will replace that.

Don’t ever plant arum italicum pictum!

Totally really more than so annoyed at my neighbours Sycamore tree this year! Usually have to weed a few aeroplane seedings. As they are affectionately known. This year I have weeded millions. Weed killed hundreds of thousands. They are still appearing. Hey ho. The tree has a conservation order on it. Hopefully not too many more to weed.

Planted two bulbs of these, they did nothing, so planted a wigelia in that spot, cut wigelia back last year, to the ground, hey ho, up pop the allium, Christophii, they've been breeding underground quietly, love them , so do the bees, , they can stay.

AskAlice

PamelaJ1 Thank you - I can sympathise with you also. we have woods at the bottom of the garden which are full of sycamores. Each spring we both spend hours pulling up thousands of seedlings! Between those and the alliums I am at least keeping fit with all the bending and digging!!!

If we didn't take charge of the seedling trees we'd be living in Sleeping Beauty's Forest!

My aliums don't seem to spread much and I wish they would.

Goodness only knows, would you like some Japanese anemones? Mine's in a pot, Pamela and that's where it is staying.

Don't ever plant oregano, in a pot or anywhere! It's a thug.
So is feverfew.
So are those nice little blue grape hyacinths

I inherited Japanese Anemone when I moved here and find that they're dreadfully invasive. I rip out any new signs of them but still keep finding them poking up between pavers and in different parts of the garden. Never put any part of them in your compost bin, they spread like weeds.

After digging up /cutting back as many as you can - try this :

Cover them with thick black plastic bags and weight them down carefully .

I've had to do this to the incredible army of weeds , which come under the fence from my reclusive neighbour's garden - not tended for 30 years .