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Potty over agapanthus
VAL BOURNE offers some useful tips on a popular South African plant
We recently held a Gardeners' Question Time for Bridewell Organic Gardens, an Oxfordshire charity that helps to "improve the emotional well being of adults who have suffered from a range of health problems, primarily mental illness", to quote their mission statement. I commend their work as I know it's gardening that keeps me sane, or some would say saner. It's common knowledge that I am not a nice person to know when I'm deprived of my garden!
One of our questions was about agapanthus, those showy South African flowers. More and more people are growing them now that our winters are warmer. But all too often buyers are attracted to them in late summer when they are in full flower.
But if you want to establish them, or any other tenderish plant, in the ground they should really be planted in May. This gives them the maximum amount of time to establish roots before winter sets in.
I grow potfuls of agapanthus along the south-facing wall of the cottage. These stand outside from April until late October before being dried out and put under cover for the winter. Walkers who pass our cottage in August gape in admiration.
I have to say that the panel were a bit sniffy about my pots of agapanthus. But it's the potfuls that people notice the most. They are crowded with flowers on long stems and they reach over 5ft in height in their elegant long tom' pots. So several in a line make a real impact and they are moveable feasts.
The questioner asked what to do with them now and the answer is to water and feed any potted agapanthus so that they get the message that winter is over.
There is a popular theory that agapanthus have to be treated meanly and be potbound and neglected before they flower. Nothing is further from the truth. We - and it is the royal we - feed ours with high-potash tomato feed weekly and we give them plenty of water. This is what makes them so splendid.
Agapanthus flowers are held on umbels and they come in blues and whites. The flowers stand out well because the petals contain anthocyanin, a concentrated pigment that gives a silk-satin sheen to the flowers.
There are six species in South Africa. The evergreen species grow in areas where winter rainfall is heaviest. The deciduous species grow in areas where summer rainfall predominates.
Most South African plants get a rainy season and many can be seen standing in water.
All agapanthus tend to be either deciduous or evergreen, according to breeding. We have both, as you can see from the main picture.
Deciduous agapanthus are much hardier. I have a large clump which flowers in August and September. I help it through winter by applying a lavish layer of grit and it comes up year after year. Evergreen agapanthus are less hardy, however, and should probably only be grown in pots.
Bridewell's walled garden and vinery are based at Wilcote, just north-east of Witney, and they do have open days. There are open days on May 18, July 13, and September 14 at
2-5pm. Call 01993 864530.
10:50am Thursday 10th April 2008
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