Agapanthus/Growing To Perfection

 

Do blue flowers make you feel cooler?

Our area had a lucky weekend--the forecast heat did not arrive.  Saturday the July-Sky was gray until 11 am, which made for comfortable, celebratory gardening.  

But that was Saturday.  Yet, the near 90F (32 C) heat forecast for the next four days didn't really happen.  We got morning hours of marine layer that kept our temperatures down by several blessed degrees each day.  Today at 1pm it's an astonishing 75F (24 C).

Still, gardening is limited to emergency spot-watering of  heat-stressed plants.  

Peak Agapanthus this week.  The garden is home to seven different cultivars and a selection of one species.  They all flower at slightly different times, extending the blooming season. 

'Pruntucky Summer' was the first to flower (May 10), and it has sent up two new inflorescences in the past couple of weeks.  Our delightfully gray May and June extended the life of the flowers.


'Queen Mum' has the largest and tallest flowers, with an inflorescence diameter of over 9" and a height of over 42".  

'Brilliant Blue' is the smallest with an inflorescence  of less than 3" in diameter, and 12" tall.

'Indigo Frost' aka 'Twister' is prolific, with a distinctive blue/white coloration.  Some of the individual fans have three bloom stems each. 

Agapathus 'Storm Cloud'(?) has that marvelous saturated blue even in intense summer sunlight:

'Atomic Bloom' claims to repeat bloom.  Haven't seen that yet, unless three more flower stems appearing just as the old ones finished is repeat bloom?  Okay, then it repeats. The short stems and growth habit are tidy, the flower color not too washed out. 

'Black Pantha' is bloomless this year, just as it was last year, even though the plant grew and looks healthy   Here it was back in 2022. 

Hmm...so what's your problem?

A deciduous species, A. inapertus 'Nigrescens' has, after several years here, never flowered.  It seemed desperately unhappy in the ground.  Potted it up, it has grown much better, but...still no flowers.  I read it does best with crowded roots, hence the pot. 

Maybe next year?

Enough Agapanthus.

I've been carefully paying attention to several rooted cuttings of Begonia 'Irene Nuss'.  I've grown this plant for over 25 years and never paid much attention to it.  The motivation to do so now is 'Irene' may be the plant to hide this pipe:

Clematis 'Angelique' very deliberately chose to avoid hiding the pipe.  She did it intentionally. I'm cramping her style--she's growing in a pot that is about 90% roots and 10% soil.  Repotting this winter, I promise. 

 'Irene Nuss' at mature size is just about the exact height (3-4') and habit (vertical) to hide that pipe.   So I've been attentively nurturing four cuttings, not only to hide the pipe, but to develop better sensitivity to what any plant needs--to learn growing to perfection.  'Irene' is a good subject because it responds quickly to just about everything: a hot day (burnt leaf), a missed watering (droop!), higher humidity (saturated foliage color) and on and on.

The plant on the left below is a cutting that rooted very quickly in warm weather.  The other two were rooted over the winter and were much slower.  Will this affect them in the longer term?   I'm hoping to find out.

 The pipe hiding failure goes back several years.  I tried in 2020 to hide it with some Nasturtiums growing up a trellis, and ended up with a broken wrist.   To add insult to literal injury, the Nasturtiums never grew.  

Under the Maple sitting on damp ground with immediate higher humidity, the 4th rooted cutting looks the happiest.  Another bit to know.  


Learning all the little factors that affect a plant is useful, surely.   I may yet get A. impertus 'Nigrescens' to flower.

Comments

  1. Oh man, am I envious of those temps! And the agapanthus blooms, they are gorgeous. I've been overlooking them until seeing your blooms and Kris's. Everything looks so pristine and wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've been really lucky about the weather--so far. I've long overlooked Agapanthus as what gas stations grow in the little beds out by the road, but newer, more interesting cultivars have caught me.

      Delete
  2. "A deciduous species..." what? Those three words caused me to stop and read them again. And again. So the majority of your agapanthus are not deciduous? Mind blown. Up here they die back with winter. Love your begonia experimenting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same reaction here when I read there were deciduous ones "...what?!?". :*)

      Delete
  3. I think blue flowers ARE cooling. You have a great - and diverse - collection of Agapanthus. As most of mine came with the garden I can only guess as to the identities of most of mine, beyond the few like 'Elaine' (late-flowering) and 'Twister' that I've added.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Elaine' is a beauty. There was a mass planting of them at the Huntington that was just gorgeous. Not sure if they are still there.

      Delete
  4. Heh, I sympathize with your pipe hiding efforts. Seems like the things I want to hide the most are where the plants seem to cooperate with my intentions the least! Fun times in the garden. The deep, drowning depths of the darkest twilight purple-blue agapanthus are my favorites, though Indigo Frost is a close second.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's times like those that remind a gardener that they are not the ones in charge. At least not 100% in charge.

      Yes that dark dark blue entrances me every year. I hope to get 'Nigrescens' to flower eventually--it is apparently even darker than 'Storm Cloud'.

      Delete
  5. Your collection of agapanthus is wonderful. 'Indigo Frost' is an eye-catcher. The agapanthus always caught my eye when visiting California. At my garden center the salesperson told me a few years back they wouldn't do well here so I didn't buy one, but now my neighbor down the street is growing one this year and it looks good. One of these days I'll try them.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Always interested in your thoughts.

Any comments containing a link to a commercial site with the intent to promote that site will be deleted. Thank you for your understanding on this matter.