Uh oh, I planted purple sensation last fall (from Bluestone Perennials) and was treated to beautiful globe like blooms this past spring/summer. I liked them so well I was planning to order more this fall. Now I wonder...

Good luck weathering the excavation. We had a well drilled last month so I feel your pain. I'm still picking rocks from the area that was once lawn and is now the aftermath of a construction site.

I was just at Walmart today. I bought 15 allium purple sensation bulbs for $5. Not sure how they will survive, but the price was worth the experiment.

I also feel your pain in the construction. National Grid came in early May to move our gas meter outside. 2 weeks after I had just put in new garden beds in front of the house. They arrived with a mini excavator - nobody told me they would need to excavate half of my front yard. This was also when my peonies were budding - it is my 3rd year with my peonies, and looked like the first year I was going to get blooms. I had to dig up all the perennials and put them in a wheelbarrow, only to replant them the next day. Needless to say, my peonies didn't bloom this year. Nothing really bloomed this year.

I have drumstick alliums all over the place, mostly bought on impulse at places like Christmas Tree Shops. The only problem I've had with them is that one year I've got a nice clump of blooming plants and the next year it looks like grass - lots more leaves, in an ever-widening patch, and not quite so many flowers. I'm not sure if they're self-sowing or dividing, and I keep meaning to look up what DiSabato-Aust has to say about them (or maybe I already checked The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, and mum's the word on Alliums - that seems likely...)

Maybe this is a zone difference, since we're in 7 here; or maybe it's a drainage issue? My garden's fairly sandy, so anything that likes well-drained loam is mostly happy in most areas of my garden.

I haven't had too much luck with the big globe-like alliums, but I do have a few that have returned for several years - no idea where they came from, what variety they are, or when I planted them; they're in an inconspicuous spot in what used to be a vegetable garden. They certainly haven't spread or increased the way the drumsticks have!

I do love to interplant alliums with hellebores, since swaths of hellebore foliage looks kind of boring in the summers.

I should say that my luck with the huge giganticus alliums (bought at the same time from the same place as the smaller purple sensation alliums was abysmal. We'll see what, if anything, they do this spring. I won't be buying more of the giants unless they decide to flower this spring.

Zones might matter, although the alliums I bought all claimed to be hardy through zone 4 on up to zones 8 or 9. My soil is rich, non-sandy but well drained. I toss horse manure on all my perennials each fall so they're well fertilized. It will be interesting to see what comes up and what blooms in the spring.