Louise takes some drastic action in a pot bound situation

I’ve lived in my current house for a scary amount of time. Over several decades I’ve seen my garden develop and gradually change over time, however there are certain perennial plants that come back year after year. I welcome them back as old friends that signal the change of seasons. They bring their colour, beauty and joy, again and again.

One example is my agapanthus. Maybe twenty years ago, I invested in a large blue ceramic pot that I planted with a couple of blue agapanthus. I hadn’t ever grown them before and I was delighted when they flowered for the first time. They were a gorgeous shade of soft blue, verging on mauve. Their elegance and colour really brought that part of the garden to life. The globe shaped, powdery blue blooms worked beautifully with the soft pinks and deep reds of the other plants, and they lasted for ages, even as they went past their best as the summer wore on and the intensity of the blue faded, eventually becoming silvery skeletons that gave an interesting architectural presence through into autumn and winter.

This was possibly one of my gardening triumphs, even if I say so myself. They gave me a great amount of pleasure over the years and looking back through my garden photos they never failed to thrill me with their beauty. Well, that was until a couple of years ago when I realized something was wrong. Where I would usually have had more than a dozen strong stems producing abundant flowers, disappointingly there were only four. I presumed that somehow or other I had neglected them and this was the result, so I stepped up my feeding and watering in the hope that the following year all would be well. Sadly this wasn’t the case. Instead the result was a dismal lonely single agapanthus flower.

What could I do? Maybe they had just reached the end of their natural life, I mean, how long do most plants live for anyway? What was puzzling was the foliage was still very healthy looking, there were plenty of the strappy green leaves, so they were alive. I guess I should have done a bit of research on the internet, but didn’t get around to it, but what did happen was my ears pricked up when indulging in one of my gardening programmes – probably Gardeners’ World – and one of the Gods of Gardening – probably the esteemed Monty Don – uttered the words ‘Agapanthus’ and ‘pot bound’. That definitely got my attention.

This must be the answer; apparently after several years in the same pot even though they like to have their roots snug, as this encourages more flowers, eventually excessive congestion of the roots can lead to sparse blooming. So the solution is to get them out of the pot and thin them out by dividing them up, and then replant just a few. Well I had my solution and I set to work. I must say this task sounded a lot easier than it was in practice. The plants and soil were so jam-packed in the pot it took many attempts to even manage to lever one or two plants out. They had grown together into a stubborn and very solid clump. It was very frustrating and got quite violent at times! I was worried I was going to break the ceramic pot and the plants as I wiggled my trowel pathetically back and forth in an effort to prize them out.

I tried a different tactic, armed with my pruning hand saw, I sliced down into the hard soil and plants, a bit like slicing a cake, and eventually managed to wheedle the first slice out. After that it became easier to slice through and remove more and more sections. I’d like to say that no agapanthus were harmed, but I’m afraid that wouldn’t be true, I did try my best to ensure the casualties weren’t excessive.

Gardening is often like that, I guess you prune, weed and thin out seedlings to enable the remaining ones to grow stronger etc. There is a happy ending to this story. The big old blue pot has been replanted with a few of the plants that were taken out. These are now looking happy and perky in the spring sunshine. I also have many more that were divided from the huge clump that are now potted up in other places around the garden, a veritable abundance of agapanthus. I guess it remains to be seen whether they will all go on and flower this year. Fingers crossed.