Stars of the show

Agapanthus is the perfect midsummer plant, flowering with spectacular blooms from June onwards and, as Monty explains, it loves to grow in a pot

- Monty

Every September in South Africa, the verges and hillsides are adorned with agapanthus, looking like swathes of monstrous bluebells. When I commented on the wonder of it, my hosts smiled slightly wearily - they had obviously gone through this many times before with northern hemisphere travellers - and pointed out that a few in the right place were fine, but in the main they were an invasive and dreary weed.

Would that I had such weeds here. As it is, I do have agapanthus growing at Longmeadow and have had for many years now. They are all in pots where I can give them a little micro-version of their preferred conditions (which are found in Southern Africa as well as California and some parts of Australia).

Although many agapanthus are hardier than people might think and do not mind summer moisture, it is the killer combination of cold and wet that will rot their roots to a mush in winter. And in my part of the world, in deepest Herefordshire, cold and wet are as guaranteed as night and day for much of the year. But give them the conditions they like, which is really not difficult, plus a little winter protection, and they will reliably perform year after year. On top of that, they are more or less impervious to slugs, rabbits and most other troubles.

The major problem for any agapanthus, however, is disturbance, and if moved or repotted the plants tend to show their resentment by ceasing to flower for a few years. The traditional advice, in the days when all flowerpots were terracotta, was not to repot an agapanthus until the roots cracked the pot, and then to only move it up to one size bigger.