My Climate Change Garden

Just returned from Portugal to this amazing tropical weather that has brought into flower one of my favourite low maintenance plants – the majestic agapanthas.

Agapanthas grow in great big clumps of fabulous showy flowers all over Portugal. If summer temperatures continue to be this high, then the future could see SE England offering similar scenes to these photos that I took just a few days ago near a fabulous place called Obidos, about an hour North of Lisbon:

These wonderful plants look really impressive in pots or in a border evoking a continental feel to the dullest of English gardens. They originate from South Africa and are more commonly known as the South African Blue Lilly

Flower structure

Agapanthus have flower-heads known as umbels, which are large and rounded and made up of many tubular flowers. Some, such as A. inapertus have pendulous flowers. Their colour ranges from shades of blue through to violet, but there are also pure white forms. Deciduous varieties, such as ‘Blue Globe’ and ‘White Superior’, are more hardy cultivars for the garden. Evergreen species include the majestic A. comptonii, a frost-tender species that is ideal for containers.

Plant history

The name agapanthus is derived from the Greek ‘agape’, meaning love, and ‘anthos’, flower. The plants were brought back to Europe in the seventeenth century by the first European settlers when they stopped in the cape to replenish their supplies. Agapanthus africanus was first introduced to Europe in 1679. Its origins in the cooler temperatures of the Western Cape, made it an ideal candidate for exporting.

In the late 1940s, the Hon. Lewis Palmer raised the Headbourne Hybrids, a reliable and hardy deciduous group of seedlings in his garden at Headbourne Worthy, Hampshire.

They thrive in dry, poor soil and love drought  so are perfect for this wonderful hot summer weather -fnd out more about how to grow agapanthas and buy plants at:

http://www.pcplants.co.uk/plants/agapanthus/index.cfm