A few weeks ago I wrote about crinums, an old southern garden stalwart that I coveted for years and finally acquired.\u00a0 I also mentioned another frost-tender object of horticultural desire\u2014agapanthus or Lily of the Nile.\u00a0 At the time, I thought it was unlikely that an agapanthus would find its way into my garden in the near future.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.\u00a0 Last week on my first trip to an exciting out-of-town nursery, an entire row of blue agapanthus danced in front of me.\u00a0 Their three-foot stalks were straight and proud, and their big, round umbels or flowerheads were the most beautiful shade of sky blue with just the slightest purple overtone.\u00a0\u00a0 My mind jumped back to the day several years ago when I saw glorious half whiskey barrels full of blue agapanthus at Stonecrop, the Garden Conservancy\u2019s headquarters in Cold Spring, NY.\u00a0 Dazzled by that remembered vision, I snatched up an agapanthus and headed for the check-out.\u00a0 Now it sits on my back porch in a faux marble urn, waiting until I find the perfect place for it in the garden.<\/p>\n
If you have ever grown globe allium or any of the round-headed ornamental onions, you have a good idea of the appearance of the Nile lily\u2019s flowers.\u00a0 Each individual flower consists of \u00a0an elongated tube springing from a slender pedicel or stalk that unites with those of many other individual flowers to form a globular head at the top of each tall stem.\u00a0 Depending on the variety, the individual flowers may be outward facing, resembling stars when fully open, or elegantly droopy.<\/p>\n
Agapanthus leaves are medium to dark green and basal, springing from the ground at the bottom of the flower stalks.\u00a0 Like many onions and some members of the amaryllis family, they are long and straplike.\u00a0 The foliage can be evergreen or deciduous.<\/p>\n
The resemblance to allium is not coincidental.\u00a0 Agapanthus is one of the many Alliaceae or onion family members.\u00a0 Luckily for lovers of garden flowers, it smells nothing like an onion. \u00a0\u00a0This compensates, at least in part, for the fact that the flowers, which bloom in shades of blue and blue-purple, as well as white, are notable for a lack of any fragrance.<\/p>\n
The common names\u2014\u201cNile lily and\u201d \u201clily-of-the-Nile\u201d\u2014are a bit misleading.\u00a0 The various species that have been bred and hybridized to create modern agapanthus cultivars are native to southern Africa, not the northeastern areas through which the Nile River flows.\u00a0 When the first agapanthus plants appeared in Europe in the early seventeenth century, the word \u201cNile\u201d was most likely used to describe anything exotic and African.\u00a0 We have since freed ourselves from such imprecise descriptions of plant origins, but the Nile descriptor has stuck to the elegant agapanthus.\u00a0 One species, Agapanthus africanus, has a much more evocative nickname–\u201clove flower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modern agapanthus aficionados like me owe a great deal to Hon. William Palmer (1894-1971), an Englishman, who was at one time treasurer of the Royal Horticultural Society.\u00a0 According to Maggie Campbell-Culver\u2019s book The Origin of Plants, <\/em>Palmer pioneered agapanthus hybridizing in the mid twentieth century, introducing a series of plants known as the \u201cHeadbourne Hybrids.\u201d \u00a0Some vendors still offer Headbourne agapanthus, while others carry newer selections and hybrids from the United States, England and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n My agapanthus did not have a varietal name on its tag, but resembles the medium blue-purple \u2018Blue Globe.\u2019\u00a0 Dark blue cultivars like \u2018Midnight Blue\u2019 or \u2018Back in Black\u2019 have also become very popular lately.\u00a0 For those with Vida Sackville West-like white gardens, there is Dutch-bred \u2018White Heaven,\u2019 which has extra-large flowerheads.<\/p>\n Like so many dramatic and beautiful plants, many agapanthus varieties are not hardy in cold winter climates.\u00a0 If grow tender agapanthus in a pot, either bring it indoors before the first frost and place in a sunny window, or overwinter the pot in a cold but frost-free room.\u00a0 In either case, water sparingly, as the plant is resting up for the summer show.\u00a0 Some sources describe the Headbourne hybrids as being hardy to USDA Zone 6, which means they can tolerate hard frost.\u00a0 If you take the chance with one of the Headbourne varieties, mulch it heavily in the late fall and try to plant it in a sunny, protected spot.<\/p>\n Potted or in-ground Nile lilies can be used as specimen plants or included in mixed borders.\u00a0 Started from bulbs, they may not bloom the first year.\u00a0 Once established, they will bloom from early to mid-summer onward.<\/p>\n Many local nurseries and garden centers now carry potted agapanthus for immediate garden gratification.\u00a0 If you cannot find those, order the bulbs in late winter from Brent and Becky\u2019s Bulbs, 7900 Daffodil Lane, Gloucester, VA 23061; (804) 693-3966; www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/p>\n Other flowers may smell sweeter, but few are as dramatically beautiful as agapanthus.\u00a0 A happy one will increase in size until you have clumps to rival those at Stonecrop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks ago I wrote about crinums, an old southern garden stalwart that I coveted for years and finally acquired.\u00a0 I also mentioned another frost-tender object of horticultural desire\u2014agapanthus or Lily of the Nile.\u00a0 At the time, I thought it was unlikely that an agapanthus would find its way into my garden in the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[23,26,24,25,28,27],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-agapanthus","tag-alliums","tag-lily-of-the-nile","tag-nile-lily","tag-onion-family","tag-ornamental-onions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}