Help! I need your agapanthus wisdom!

[TamiTayorismyparentingguru]

So I planted a new border area in June and it’s coming along really well. Among other things I planted 2 agapanthus - 1 medium sized and 1 small.

They are both growing and green and there are small new leaves starting in the centre. BUT - there is no sign of them flowering at all and every other agapanthus I can see is well in bloom.

More significantly though they both look like they are bursting out of the ground. They were planted at the recommended depth and the soil around them was flat when I planted them but now it’s like a wee mound and you can see the bulbs bursting out of the soil. They are totally solid though - I could tug and tug on them and they wouldn’t move. My guess is that they have rooted well (they must have done because they are so solid) but the soil down at a deeper depth is quite clay-y and I wonder are they trying to root down deeper and can’t?

Anyway - anyone with any wisdom who can tell me if they are likely to survive and flower or if they just aren’t going to take if they are already bursting out of the ground.

I could put down a bit of extra soil but can only do so much because I have low-lying hebes and the like nearby.

I feel your pain ! We have two in our border. The leaves come up every year (3+) but never any flowers. Following with interest.

I believe that agapanthus are supposed to be in small pots as they like their roots restricted so I guess yours has put all it's energy into the roots

Agapanthus can be notoriously shy to flower. As they are newly planted you may have to wait several years before they bloom. Are they in full sun? Shade can prevent flowering. When grown in containers, the advice is to pot into the smallest pot, to restrict the roots. Obviously, you can't do that in the open garden, so it's a question of waiting!
I have a couple of clumps that have been in my garden for many years, and only produced very sporadic blooms, I was actually considering digging them up, but this year they have produced half a dozen blooms, so maybe they heard me!

Sorry, very little wisdom here but I had one in the ground and it always started to grow a nice amount of leaves and I was hopeful that each year was going to be the year it flowered. Nope.

Gave up and moved it to a pot and it flowered last year, doesn’t look like it is going to this year as it had already flowered by this time last year but it’s roots are starting to push up a bit so might need repotting when the weather settles down.

Have you tried tomato fertilizer? It is supposed to encourage other things to flower, don't know if it would work for agapanthus?

I also have a question though if it’s ok to hijack briefly, mine does look like it has become two clumps. Anyone know if it’s ok to separate them?

Yes you can separate.

Mine have gone crazy this year but so has everything else-until the lack of water stopped it! I don't want to water the garden though as it will encourage roots to come to the surface...

Whether an agapanthus flowers or not is, to a large extent, determined by what happened to it the previous year. So if there are no signs of flowers, you’re unlikely to get it to flower this year.

To improve your chances for next year, feed the plant with tomato fertiliser once every two weeks until mid September. And next year feed every two weeks from late Spring onwards.

Agapanthus can take a while to flower, but using this method has always given me good results (even if I often don’t remember to start feeding until the end of June 😂)

Agree with Crazzycat. Aggies make embryonic flower buds one summer to flower the next. Feed with high potash liquid food (tomato or rose) while they are in active growth and flowering, and you will maximise your chances of flowers next year. They do sometimes take time to settle into a new site or pot before flowering

We've got half a dozen potter agapanthus. 2 have flowered this year and one looks like a flower bud has appeared in the last week. They were all repotted earlier this year.

We do feed them (hope the photo attached) but they want to be pot bound, so we're hoping they'll do better next year.

Agree with Crazzy and others.

Mine are stunning (not a stealth boast) this year, but it takes work and it has taken me years to work out how to get it right.

Firstly they need to be in pots. Then they need to be fleeced during the sharpest frosts if you are in a very cold part of the country. Finally you have to feed. I use Tomorite once every three weeks from early Spring until the leaves are established, then once a week to encourage the flower buds to come through. Two of mine are now in full flower so I will ease back on the Tomorite but three are just about to pop so I will increase it slightly to once every 5-6 days.

Once they have flowered keep feeding once every three weeks until the foliage starts to die back.

Mine have been in the same pots now for four years and two are very pot bound. However, they hate being moved so I will only do it if they fail to flower next year..

Do persevere, they are stunning to look at and the bees love them.

Ok - so they need to be in pots - I did NOT know this and the wee tab thing on the pot when I bought them did NOT say this! Gutted. (I am a total novice gardener who is just muddling through with no real idea what I’m doing and just gleaning as much info and advice as I can from the lovely staff at the garden centres and online!)

Do I up-root them and then put them back in the ground in pots or are the done for now?

No, they DON'T need to be in a pot, in the open garden Is fine, they just need time to settle in. Once established feeding does help, but I've never fed mine. Patience...!

I’d uproot when it’s cooler, and pot them up.
I bought a cheap bulb in Wilco’s last autumn potted it up and left it in a cold green house all winter and much to my surprise it’s flowering well.
My other clump was a potted left over from the garden centre, it’s flowering as well.
I’ve seen them in borders, but I wonder if the pot was buried as well.

They absolutely DO NOT have to be in pots

Whatever you do OP do not visit the Chelsea Physic garden. I get acute agapanthus rage every time I go there. Theirs are perfect, tall,lots of flower stems, seem to last for ages,beautiful seed heads.......

2018 is the third and final year of the RHS trial of Agapanthus. All 150 varieties are growing in the open ground. Will be very interesting to see which come up trumps

I grew agapanthus in pots in the UK to no avail. Here in Australia they grow well with no help at all and are in the ground so not constricted. Having said that they love to clump, so guessing they make their own constrictions as it were. They grow on a coarse, very sandy soil.