The Agapanthus Plant – How to Grow This Statuesque Star

I felt it was time to add a further stunner to my Plant Hall of Fame. And what better one to go for than the Agapanthus plant.

Given that this year I’m really focused on sustainable flowers – trying to fill my vases all year round from the garden, so that I avoid the air miles, plastic wrap and chemicals that go into supermarket flowers – the vase-power alone of Agapanthus secures her a spot in my Hall of Fame. The loose, blue, lilac or white, round flowers from an Agapanthus plant look absolutely incredible in a vase. Just need 3 of the long elegant stems create a real statement. I don’t think there are many other plants you can say that of.

But there are plenty of other reasons to love Agapanthus. She is handsome, distinctive, architectural, has a long flowering period, gives instant oomph to a garden or container, and is easy to care for. Agapanthus is drought tolerant too.

So how do you add this high impact, low maintenance beauty to your garden?

Read more: The Agapanthus Plant – How to Grow This Statuesque Star

Agapanthus Plant Essentials

• How tender are they?
• How to grow and care for them
• Propagation
• Some container tips
• Varieties to try

1.How Tender is The Agapanthus Plant?

The first things I would say is that while the Agapanthus plant looks exotic and potentially high maintenance she isn’t. Mine have flourished in my garden with very little help from me.

You can get deciduous and evergreen Agapanthus. The experts say that the deciduous varieties (which lose their leaves) are the hardiest. For instance they will grow in the salty sea air of a coastal spot. My biggest brother definitely has them flourishing in his West Wales garden. The experts also say that the deciduous types of Agapanthus will survive UK winters if grown in a sheltered spot.

But all this advice infers that the evergreen Agapanthus is temperamental and tender and needs moving over winter. Indeed the experts say that while some tender, evergreen agapanthus may survive winter, it’s best to move them indoors in case of severe winter weather. They recommend lifting the plant and potting it up to keep in a cool, light but frost-free place for winter. Or if you have them in pots, moving those pots under cover.

To Move or Not To Move Your Agapanthus Plant?

Now, I’m the first to mess about protecting plants; I wrap up my Camellias in their containers in bubblewrap (what a faff!) and cut back and move my Ensete into a frost-free shed, wrapped in a smelly old rug.

But because I didn’t know any better, and my Agapanthus addiction was started almost by accident, I didn’t do all that. I have both deciduous and evergreen Agapanthus and they are fine over winter without any additional protection! I do leave their leaves in tact to provide a layer of ‘cwtch’ as we say in Wales. But I do this with just about every plant in our garden. I resist the urge to tidy the garden over winter, firmly believing the old leaves provide protection to the new growth coming through. But when it comes to Agapanthus I don’t do anything more complicated than that. In short, I don’t find them tender.

2. How to Grow and Care for Them

Position

The trick is that the Agapanthus plant likes to be in a sunny, well drained spot. I think this is why mine are so happy. They are growing at the front of our little south-facing cottage. They grow at the base of our cottage wall, so they are really sheltered enjoy the additional reflected heat from the stone. Added to all this, they’re planted in the gravel of our drive. It couldn’t be a more free-draining if it tried!

If you can’t recreate all of these conditions or you live in a colder part of the country than we do (we’re in the Cotswolds where it’s all pretty mild) you may not want to adopt my relaxed attitude to Agapanthus care. That’s fine. In which case if you have the deciduous variety, on a warm autumn day and before the first frosts rock up, cover the crowns of the plants with something protective like straw. I’d also leave the foliage uncut as they’ll definitely provide an extra protective shield.

If you have the evergreen types you may want to lift and move them to somewhere cool and light but away from potential frosts, as I’ve already described.

Watering

The recent weather has made us all think about drought tolerant gardening. Well the good news is that Agapanthus can cope with minimal watering. Indeed they are fine in a gravel garden that isn’t watered. However, as with other plants, when you first plant your Agapanthus (ideally do this in spring) do water it during the first year, to help it along until its roots become established.

Deadheading

I don’t bother deadheading the Agapanthus plant. I’ll pick some of the stems for my vases but otherwise I leave the beauty well alone. I think the seedheads look lovely and sculptural over winter. I also leave them in place as I want my plant to self seed and spread.

3. Propagation

From Seeds

If you leave the seedheads as I do, you could try to collect the seeds and sow them. Do this when the seedhead is becoming brown and the capsules are starting to burst. Sadly, I get distracted by other garden tasks and always leave the seadheads too long.

To get around this, you can store the whole seedhead in a paper bag before this point and wait for the seeds to ripen. I’ve tried this and ended up with a back full of debris and couldn’t tell the seeds from everything else! Mr F-W thought it was a hilarious waste of time.

If you are more successful than me at all this seed malarkey, remember to plant them in seed trays as soon as you’ve collected them. Use good draining seed compost and prick the plants out when they become established. Growing from seed, you may get flowers in a couple of years but my hunch is it will take a bit longer. Also, the experts warn that the plants you grow will not come true to type.

Dividing an Agapanthus Plant

Given all of this faff and uncertainty, my preferred propagation method is to either let my plants do their own thing. (I get masses of seedlings naturally growing from my plants). If you don’t want to rely on nature, you can divide up your clumps of Agapanthus plants in spring or autumn. I do this every four or so years. It’s a good idea as it stops them becoming too congested – and you get lots of lovely free plants!

Simply lift the plants and carefully divide them with a sharp spade. You want each section that you’re creating to have at least two growing points. If a clump is very established and a bit of a knotted mess, you may need to use two garden forks back to back to prise apart the elements. I’ve even resorted to a saw as a last resort!

4. Container Tips

• Limit their root space
• Good drainage
• Feed once a year
• Group them with others

In addition to having these beauties growing in the gravel at the front of our cottage, we also have them in containers. The trick with growing an Agapanthus plant in a container is to let the roots become restricted. If you give them too much space they won’t flower.

This is really good news if you have awkward smaller or mid-sized containers. People often very kindly give me such pots but they’re really tricky. They’re too small to plant up a combination of plants together – which is my preferred technique for planting up containers. Nor do they provide the room for most really significant specimen plant to grow on its own. Added to this, if you’re not really vigilant, such smaller containers dry out really quickly, killing off whatever you’ve planted!

This is where an Agapanthus plant rides to your rescue – especially some of the smaller varieties. They’re happy in a smaller pot, they can cope with drought and when in bloom they are one heck of a statement plant. They look so chic.

Brilliant Blue is a gorgeous shorter-stemmed variety, with yes, you guessed it, brilliant blue flowers. It reaches up to 60cm in height. It’s deciduous and hardy and looks lovely in a pot. Shorter still, at just 30cm, is Peter Pan – a lovely pale sky blue variety with a dark blue stripe.

Other Container Rules

If you are growing an Agapanthus in a pot, plant it in a soil based compost. Make sure the pot has good drainage, and give the plant a feed with a slow release fertiliser in the spring. To be honest, I put a handful of slow release fertiliser in all of my pots in the spring – as obviously your container plants can’t spread their roots out to seek out additional nutrients! They’re dependent on you. I then give them additional feeds of Tomorite (or a similar tomato feed) every week or so, throughout the growing season and into autumn.

Also remember they don’t have gorgeous leaves; they’re long and strippy but nothing special. So when an Agapanthus is not in bloom it’s boring to look at. So it’s best to group your Agapanthus pots in amongst other containers – or be prepared to move them. That way when you won’t be left with a big patch of nothingness when they’ve finished flowering.

Agapanthus Plant Varieties To Try

There are so many I could mention, but here are some of my favourites…

• Agapanthus ‘Queen Mother’ – white flowers with purple/blue at base – 1.2 metres tall
• Agapanthus Africanus Albus – classic white, 60-90cm tall
• Agapanthus Africanus Blue – classic deep blue, dazzling flowers 60-90cm tall
• Agapanthus Africanus Twister – large bi-coloured flowers, 50cm tall
• Agapanthus Black Pantha – blue black flowerheads, 1 metre tall
• Agapanthus campanulatus ‘Rosewarne’ – lovely sky blue and 1.2 metres tall
• Agapathus Lilliput – sweet blue dwarf variety, 40 cm tall – with deep green leaves
• Agapanthus Fireworks – blue and white, the name says it all – its spectacular!

Although there are many lovely varieties of Agapanthus out there, remember they are all fundamentally on the white, blue or lilac colour spectrum. So if you’re after pink, an Agapanthus won’t be for you!

If I’ve whetted your appetite and you’re going to take the plunge, you’ve lots of options. You can plant them up in big drifts in a sunny border. Here you can see them effectively backed by grasses.

Or how about creating a walkway like this one at Aston Pottery below. They’ve White Agapanthus ‘Queen Mother’ cleverly coupled with Eucomis Sparkling Burgundy. How clever is this – gorgeous!!

Have a plain, vibrant wall – say a coloured shed? I think they could add real drama in such a location.

I also like them in a mixed planting. At the front of our cottage we have Agapanthus both in pots and in the ground – a real mish mash but I love it. Our varieties include Agapanthus Africanus Albus and Africanus Blue.

If you’ve only a modest pot, I think this humble, small, chipped terracotta container below is really elevated by being planted with an Agapanthus plant.

I also like the contrast between my white container and the pristine blue Agapanthus in the photo below. If you had a grouping of white pots like this (rather than my jumble) say on a chic, modern deck, I think it could look really stylish.

I hope I’ve inspired you a little to find space for an Agapanthus plant in your garden. Dazzling, elegant, drought resistant and easy-peasy to look after – what’s not to love!!