While we continue to enjoy glorious weather my attention is drawn to the agapanthus in the garden. It is a bit early to expect flowers, they are usually at their peak from July to September, but you will be able to buy plants in bloom. These tough perennials are admired for their glorious blue flowers. All have strappy leaves that form dense clumps with thick, fleshy roots and leafless stems with a globe of starry blooms.
But there is a lot more to agapanthus than this. Firstly, there are the evergreen kinds which usually have bolder, wider leaves and larger heads of blooms. They are the most impressive but, being evergreen, are prone to damage in our winters. Although all agapanthus are pretty hardy and will sprout if the foliage is burned off in hard frost, these are perhaps better grown in pots and protected in winter in a greenhouse. Alternatively you could cover them with fleece in cold periods to help reduce damage to the leaves.
I protect my evergreen agapanthus in the open border by placing a loose cover of bracken (you could also use straw) over the plants in late autumn and remove it in March so it does not exclude too much light.
The deciduous kinds have narrow leaves and naturally lose their leaves in winter. This means that, unless you live in a very cold place, they will survive in any sunny border. They have smaller flower heads but they are often produced in profusion.
You can easily identify the deciduous, really hardy kinds when you buy them. If the leaves are 1-2cm wide they will be deciduous and hardy. If the leaves are wider than 2cm they are likely to be evergreen.
Agapanthus do not have to be blue! There are also white varieties, some are purple and there is even some pink forms now (though rather pastel pink). To be brutally honest, I don’t see the point of anything other than blue agapanthus and there are dozens of variations on blue, many with white and blue flowers that are spectacular. The blue kinds look great with pink flowers but really stand out against contrasting oranges.
Agapanthus love sun and well-drained soil. But that doesn’t mean they are cacti! They also need plenty of moisture when in growth and plenty of feeding. Many people grow them in pots and if you do you must use John Innes No 3 compost. Use a pot that has straight sides and is wider at the top than the base because, after a few years, the clumps will get huge and need to be repotted or their roots will actually break the pot. In pots you also need to give a liquid fertiliser, every week, from April to August to boost growth and flowering.
In the garden, place them where they get full sun and apply a general fertiliser around them in spring. A rose fertiliser is perfect.
They need a few years to settle down and start flowering well so do not be disappointed if you do not get any flowers the year after planting. This is especially true if you planted bare roots. It is always best to buy agapanthus in pots to avoid root disturbance.
Once your plant is established it will not need to be disturbed for many years. You can divide them but it will inevitably cause a lot of damage to the roots and the divisions will take a year or two to recover. The clumps will also be very heavy so it is best to dig out beside the clump and chop off sections. Be bold. But only divide them in spring, in March or April, as growth is starting, to avoid all the cut surfaces rotting.
The height of agapanthus varies from 30cm to 1.5m. So they get the most sun they are usually planted at the front of the border but they can be planted further back they are tall. Avoid them being shaded too much by shrubs. They make a great edging to rose beds and, because they like similar conditions, look well with crocosmias, lavenders, eryngiums, hibiscus and cistus and ornamental grasses.
Most agapanthus produce one flush of flowers, which last many weeks, but reblooming kinds are being produced. ‘The most ‘Poppin Purple’ is the most popular of these, with, you guessed it, purple flowers!
Agapanthus bring a touch of the exotic to any garden and are easier than their appearance suggests. Now is the perfect time to add one to your garden and you will probably get some instant colour too. And these long-lived perennials will just get better every year.
I need to add my own experiences to this general information. I have rather heavy soil that is usually very wet in winter. And yet all my agapanthus do well. Even my evergreen agapanthus, which this winter got frosted quite badly, are recovering well. There may be fewer flowers than I would like this summer because it obviously weakens the plants, but I will get some blooms.
