Carol Klein on why agapanthus are so amazing
It’s a glorious plant that never fails to look good
Big, blue and beautiful, agapanthus are always considered very special plants. Nothing about them is ordinary or workaday! Their striking heads of blue flowers are always impressive and at this time of year they can be among the most spectacular flowers in the summer garden.
Old plants in large containers can add pure theatre to the most mundane setting, without demanding more than the most basic care. Once upon a time, it was the fashion to separate agapanthus from other perennials, growing them in splendid isolation.
But since they mingle so beautifully with herbaceous plants, such practices miss the point. Though they make wizard container plants, mixing them with other plants is the best fun – there’s no end to the adventurous combinations that can be dreamed up with like-minded plants. Blue is the easiest colour to associate and assimilate – in fact, it’s difficult to use it badly.
Blue with yellow is a classic combination. Try mixing deep blue agapanthus, such as ‘Midnight Star’, with bright yellow rudbeckia or a pale blue variety, such as ‘Blue Nile’ with warm yellow or amber crocosmia.
For a classic pastel combination, mix agapanthus with pale phlox and blue and white campanulas, or use the blue of agapanthus flowers as a cool contrast to red flowers and tropical foliage by mixing them with canna, ricinus, dahlias and a miscanthus or two, so that not only colours but also shapes contrast and stimulate.
Agapanthus have their own mystique and their own mythology. One of these myths is they’re especially difficult to grow. Often gardeners think of them as tender plants that need special care. Though there are a few species best grown in containers and cossetted under cover through the winter, there are many varieties that’ll thrive in beds and borders from John O’Groats to Land’s End. True, they’re more often seen in the south, but perhaps this reflects our horticultural inhibitions rather than a realistic assessment of their chances.
Though there are any amount of species, varieties and hybrids,
‘Though they make wizard container plants, mixing them with other plants is the best fun’
agapanthus fall into two main categories. The African or umbellatus group have big, strap-like leaves with substantial heads of large flowers. They’re evergreen, unless they’re subjected to severe cold. These are the lilies of the Nile, most frequently grown in large tubs and trundled into the glasshouse for winter and out again for spring.
The group that interests most gardeners, and which needs no such cossetting, are the campanulatus hybrids, which make brilliant and reliable garden plants. Their stature and colour vary enormously, although always in the range of blues and whites, with an occasional foray into purple. All have narrow leaves which they lose during the winter.
For gardeners who‘ve no time to move plants backwards and forwards to spend a winter sojourn under cover, the deciduous forms are the ones to go for.
Many have smaller flowers but produce them prolifically. A good clump of ‘Blue Crown’ can make 20 stems of its delightful deep blue drumsticks after just a few seasons. A mulch of home-made compost or well-rotted muck applied around the crowns in spring should ensure good flowering and all-round vigour. It’s not a bad idea to heap soil over the crowns through the worst of the winter weather as a precaution.
Every few years, clumps can be divided in the spring. First, lift them and clean off the roots to see better what you’re doing and chop into a few pieces with a sharp spade or tease them apart using back-to-back forks. Replant in new holes with enriched soil.