ADVICE ON PLANTING PLEASE
A delivery mix up this week has resulted in me receiving 6 Agapanthus roots (size 1-2 eyes); the packaging tells me to plant August onwards; I'd like them in a sunny border and wonder if they will 'keep' in the pack until the recommended planting time or if I can plant out sooner.
Your advice, please.
Many thanks.
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Hi Pinkpeony
My agapanthus are in a terracotta pot and have overwintered in a sheltered corner of the terrace - there are signs of life and shoots growing already, so I think yours will be ok planted out.
I'd plant them into a pot (free draining gritty compost) and keep in a sheltered corner - you can then sink the pot into the border later. They do best if they're pot-bound so it might be an idea to keep them in a pot sunk into the ground.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I was going to start a thread on agapanthus but thought I'd add on here as you all seem to know a lot about them. I've had several tubers in a long tall pot, for quite a few seasons now, maybe 6 years. I've been away for a couple of years and last summer which was my first one back I had foliage but not a single flower, and now ahead of this summer I'm wondering what I can do to ensure flowers. Was it particularly a bad year for agapanthuses after the awful winter you had 2012-13, which might explain things? Should I feed them? Or put them in a new pot, despite their reputation for liking cramped roots? i am worried about moving them on and then finding that I've set them back for another year. Thanks for any advice.
Yes, it was a bad year for them last year adamadamant, but even though young plants start to flower quicker when kept in a pot, they still need to be fed and have a bit of room to grow, especially after 6 years in the same one. I'd re-pot them into a larger pot, say 25% larger. The fresh compost you use when re-potting will feed them for a season, but then use a general feed (eg fish, blood and bone) every spring or a liquid feed (eg tomato or seaweed feed) 3-4 times a year.
That's very encouraging thanks! Off to the garden centre with a spring my step this morning. While we were away our tenants badly neglected the garden and Im quite sure they didn't get any feed or attention, which I can now remedy. Thanks.
.....and was it you, Bob, who advised me to plant my saved agapanthus seeds straight away? Well the indoor ones germinated quickly and yesterday I decided to prick out....not sure if that was a mistake - they are like tiny blades of grass and have very little root. I did the first dozen (about a quarter of the total) to ssee what happens and put the individual pots back on the windowsill alongside the orignal one. Belt and braces strategy!
Good idea, gardening granny! I think they'll probably be ok but it's always worth hedging your bets when it comes to pricking-out very young seedlings, whether they be agapanthus or anything else!
I do a similar thing with tomatoes - 2 seeds per module and if both germinate I prick one out while it is quite small and leave the other. I always end-up with about 4 times as many plants as I have room for though!
Thank you all so much - I shall pot them up and then wait till later in the year to plant out, though it seems they prefer being grown in pots.... I really don't have any more space for pots but do need to fill the borders, the spot I have in mind already has blue/purple hardy geraniums and purple lupins and so I thought the agapanthus would make a suitable companion, but perhaps sinking the pots into the ground as suggested by Dovefromabove is the solution.
Thanks once again, as always your advice is much appreciated.
Yes, I'd also recommend burying the pots in the border like Dove said, so that the pot rim is slightly below soil level. That way you get the best of both worlds and they'll be easy to lift when it's time to re-pot them.
Bought some 6 inch plastic pots for the agapanthus and will use Levingtons Multi Purpose Compost, will this be OK? I also have some horticultural grit that I can add - your help once more, please.
Thank you.