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Agapanthus - a very personal
appraisal
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| Broadleigh
Gardens offer one of the largest ranges of Agapanthus
plants anywhere. If you would like to order for delivery next spring,
please click here. |
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Please click on the
small pictures to see enlarged pictures which will open in a new window. |
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can forget the big, blousy belles of Madeira or the lusty beauties of New
Zealand and Tresco, my choice of agapanthus lies with the subtle charms of
the A.campanulatus cultivars & hybrids.
Agapanthus have been a feature of my life ever since I was taken to
Headbourne Manor as a newly engaged fiancée and left clutching seed of
their famous hardy hybrids. These had originated from a packet of mixed
agapanthus seed from Kirstenbosch Gardens sent to Luly Palmer in the
1940s.
The Nile Lily or Blue African Lily are
native to S.Africa, though they have rapidly spread around the temperate
world, their tidy evergreen foliage making them ideal subjects for
municipal plantings such as airports. All produce strap-like leaves and an
umbel of tubular
flowers in shades of blue or white. Although
all the varieties most commonly grown today are almost certainly
hybrids, indeed some authorities have even gone as far as to suggest that
there is only one, variable species, there are distinct differences to be
seen between them. Also these differences are not solely visual; there are
distinct and significant cultural requirements as well.
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Agapanthus
'Headbourne Blue'
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Agapanthus 'Headbourne White'
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Until
the Headbourne hybrids became
freely available the most commonly encountered Agapanthus were forms of
the large flowered A.africanus or A.praecox (previously
known as A.umbellatus ) which were usually acquired
on holiday as dormant plants or ‘bulbs’ as the fleshy rootstock
is frequently miscalled. These handsome plants are virtually evergreen,
with broad leaves and large heads, often 20cms or more in diameter with 80
or more flowers. The individual flowers, 5cm long x 3.5cm wide, are deeply
cut, the lobes being considerably longer than the tube, and only slightly
spreading. They are characterised by an uneven profile. the lower petals
being held almost horizontal. They
originally came from the coastal regions and although they are the most
striking cultivars they are
not fully hardy. In all but
the mildest districts they are best grown in containers which should be
kept frost free during the winter. They flower best when pot bound,
although there is a fine line between pot bound and starved which is
difficult to define. |
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| Other
species, which can be occasionally encountered, have distinctive umbels of
nodding, tubular flowers such as A.inapertus or A.dyeri. The latter is
reported to be hardy to –10oC at Kew but we have not grown
any outside as yet. The dark ‘Bressingham
Blue’ seems to have inherited a touch of this attractive nodding shape.
By far the greatest number of named
Agapanthus owe their existence to selection
from among the offspring of the original Headbourne Hybrids. These
are deciduous, based upon the species, particularly A.campanulatus, from
higher and therefore hardier altitudes. Their leaves are narrower and
their flower heads considerably smaller, but they make up for any
shortcomings in size by their sheer exuberance of flower. Most make
excellent and easy plants for any well drained, fertile soil in full sun. |
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Agapanthus 'Bressingham Blue'
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| Over
the years we gradually added a few distinctive named clones and this was
the extent of our collection until I visited Savil Gardens.
John Bond had decided that his “Royal” cultivars.,
which had been selected and named for an RHS trial, should be
introduced to a wider public. He kindly asked me to choose the varieties I
thought had commercial potential. This was some 7 years ago and it is only
now that they are they really
getting into their stride and that we can assess
and compare them to other clones. |
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Agapanthus 'Liliput'
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The
great danger of a review like
this is that it ends up as an amorphous list. This is especially true of
Agapanthus where there is a single, two if you count white, colour and the
differences between plants are often subtle. The current RHS
Plantfinder lists some xx cultivars.
I will therefore only mention a tiny number of
individual varieties but try and sort them into distinct groups.
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| Height
is an obvious ways of
distinguishing between cultivars.
They vary from 10cm to 1.6m (1’-5’
is so much more graphic!). The smallest cultivars are utterly charming but
equally frustrating as they are frequently shy to flower well. They resent
disturbance and it can be some years before the clump will deign to
flower. Do not be tempted to move them. They seem to thrive best in well
drained soils such as on a
rock garden or raised bed. One of the tiniest must be ‘Baby Blue’
which forms tight mats of narrow leaves barely 8cms long.
‘Peter Pan’, ‘Streamline’ and ‘Liliput’ are a little
larger, at 37cm, with neat 8-10cm diameter heads of mid blue. In
‘Streamline’ the umbel is sparsely flowered but the individual flowers
are large. ‘White Dwarf’ is a compact hybrid with rounded, broad
petaled flowers. Unlike the others this slightly taller hybrid is very
free flowering and is excellent for the front of a border or container. |
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| At
the other end of the scale are the giants. Standing some 1.6m tall these
are suitable for the back of the border although the characteristic habit
of all Agapanthus, to lean towards the sun, will
necessitate discreet staking.
‘Buckingham Palace’ has large 20cm heads of intense dark blue.
It flowers in peak season unlike the other giant, ‘Loch Hope’, which
is one of the last to flower in mid September. It is not as dark as
Buckingham Palace but is a good strong blue. The other late flowering
variety is ‘Blue Moon’, an Eric Smith hybrid with huge heads of
clear ice-blue on thick,1.3m stems. Its broad leaves denote at
least a touch of A. africanus
in its ancestry but it has proved completely hardy here. It only receives
the same treatment as all our hardy varieties, a mulch of leaves held down
by a large net. |
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| Among
the remaining cultivars it is
flower colour and shape that is most significant. Although the diameter of
individual heads varies from 4-7” the
actual number of flowers in each umbel is more telling. This varies from
30-60, the most congested giving a bolder impression. Even more
significant is the shape of the flowers. Most have 6 petals but
some, such as the deep blue ‘Blue Giant’, have extra ones
giving the head a very ‘full’ appearance. This variety is also
interesting as the flowers are held in the same plane as the pedicel and
not at an angle as is more common. Individual flowers also vary in shape
from broadly tubular to strongly campanulate, where the lobes are almost
reflexed from a short tube. These flowers are broader than they are long,
giving a dense, round profile to the head. Good examples of this are
‘Profusion’, ‘Blue Imp’ and ‘Royal Blue’, all of which are
deep blue. |
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Agapanthus 'Profusion'
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| ‘Midnight
Star’, ‘Super Star’ and ‘Ice Blue Star’ are very vigorous
varieties with narrow buds and flowers that are longer than they are wide
in large heads. They vary from a glowing deep blue to a cool, pale blue. |
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| Among
the white flowered cultivars there is a proliferation of names but to date
I have not seen any really significant variation among them other than the
sturdy and free flowering ‘White Dwarf’. |
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Agapanthus 'Blue Moon'
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Variegated Agapanthus
seem to be more or less evergreen and consequently less hardy. Yes, A
‘Tinkerbell’ does flower but only rarely. However I find the rather
lax, insipid blue flowers a distraction and prefer to grow it in a pot as
a handsome foliage plant for outside in the summer and under glass in the
winter. This year , in desperation, we decided drastic measures were
called for and we cut all the
foliage back to see if this would stimulate them into flowering. We have
had little experience of the larger ‘Golden Rule’ but have recently
rescued it from the open garden where it was languishing and hope it will
prefer a more cosseted existence under glass. I am also looking forward to
obtaining the new silver variegated ‘Silver Moon’. I am also afraid
that the raspberry bed is under threat as the collection grows and the
agapanthus continue their inexorable march through what was my vegetable
garden. Ah well, there are worse things. |
