I planted my allium bulbs upside down. Will it matter?
Morris Brookes, by email
Stefan says: You have the elegant allium ‘Purple Sensation’, a large display of which always enhances one of my borders in late spring. However, you say you’ve planted yours upside down. I wonder how you found out.
Presumably you didn’t know as you were doing it, and have just realised now, perhaps from talking to another gardener or from the internet. You ask if you should dig them up and replant, or leave them where they are.
My instinct is to leave them where they are. Nature has a wonderful way of correcting things and shoots are what is known as negatively geotropic, which sounds complicated but means they’ll always grow against the pull of gravity. Their journey to the soil surface will be a little longer but I think this is better than disturbing them now they’re settled.