Agapanthus repot or open ground

twopenny

I've been getting a lovely display each year with them being in a pot and I read that they bloom better when rootbound.

However the blooms are getting smaller each year. Should I put them in a slightly larger pot or directly into the ground?

I'm reluctant to split them into two pots as I'm trying to get rid of too many pots to water.

Davesnave

I've seen the contradictory advice on this and witnessed a fall of in performance in pots. The roots eventually fill most of the space and nutrients become exhausted. Repotting and reducing does result in a bit of sulking, but longer term they'll be better off, or you could plant them in the border and try a root barrier 'corset' if you think they'll produce more flowers from restraining the root spread. Personally, I'd shove 'em against a sunny wall or similar and let them get on with it.

Apodemus

Ha!  Sulking?! I've had an agapanthus in a pot for 22 years and never yet seen any sign of a flower.  I tried fifteen years with it getting increasingly pot-bound and now six years in a much bigger pot.  I've tried feeding and starving, watering and drought all to no effect.  It's one of the healthiest-looking plants I've got, but you don't keep an agapanthus for its foliage!   I'm guessing, though, that it just didn't like being moved through 57 degrees of latitude from it's original home!

twopenny

Apodemus, why would you keep it, water and feed it for 22yrs if it doesn't flower.

Gift it to someone?

I must admit this was my second try with the plant. The first grew in the ground and disappeared after a couple of seasons. I did try growing it from seed but it takes something like 7yrs to mature. I'd hoed it off at some point around year 3. Mortified.

Apodemus

twopenny said:

Apodemus, why would you keep it, water and feed it for 22yrs if it doesn't flower.

Gift it to someone?

I'm keeping it for sentimental reasons. It was a gift from my late mother and she had grown it from seeds that she collected from my garden when we lived in the tropics.

twopenny

Good reason.
Maybe get a blooming companion for it this summer. Perhaps it's lonely.
You have it baking in full sun?

Apodemus

twopenny said:

You have it baking in full sun?

Well, yes...but in northern Scotland, the sun is seldom full or baking!