Have a whole load of alliums and tulips to plant in one central bed. Depth of planting I have, but how far apart should I space the individual bulbs, one lot as a mass of alliums and one as a mass of tulips?
Re: Alliums... You'll be sorry... Alliums will reseed themselves nearly infinitely and are entirely unmanageable. However, the tulip bulbs should go at least 4 to 6 inches in the ground, at least here in the western U.S. We plant our tulips about now or within the next couple of weeks. Additionally we actually plant them about 6 to nearly 8 inches in the ground, cover with maybe 3 to 4 inches of soil and plant earlier blooming Grape Hyacinths or daffodils directly on top of them... makes an interesting a lovely spring garden, especially if we get a late snow...
Reread question... plant tulips (and daffodils, if chosen) about 2 to 3 inches apart... maybe a little more if the bulbs are large. In a year or three you should dig them and separate them anyway... casting aside the small and deformed ones...
Fred distance isn't important IMO. I dig a hole and then plonk the bulbs in in 3's and 5's or 7's if the space is big enough. Sometimes the bulbs are actually touching.
Clanad, I can't keep Alliums going at all....would love it if they would self seed!
Clanad is dead right about deep enough, rule of thumb is twice the depth of the bulb at least. I have got tubs that are triple layered with small crocusses, early daffs, then late daffs On top of that are cyclamen and camellias.
Really, Maggie? I could do with things that spread like mad. Muscari, liatris (! Well, I learn to live with it), my cyclamen are doing it, rhus is colonising one corner, but I draw the line at sycamore (my woodman observed that, come the end of the world, only sycamore and cockroaches will be left). I even have oaks that appeared from nowhere, courtesy of the local jays, all in the wrong place but spreading.. The more the merrier; beats a garden full of nettles any day !