Agapanthus Not Flowering

A young bulb may not produce flowers the first year.

Agapanthus not flowering. These dramatic sun loving border plants produce large spherical flowerheads usually in beautiful shades of blue from midsummer onwards. It may not have had at least 6 plus hours of direct sun or enough nutrition. According to agapanthus grower and expert steve hickman the most common problem with agapanthus is that the plant has plenty of leaves but no flowers. Don t stress if your agapanthus isn t flowering.

The agapanthus will not mind one bit. Failure to repot very pot bound plants will also reduce flowering so don t put the job off indefinitely. It should eventually bloom. Here are some other reasons for an agapanthus not flowering.

Try feeding the plant twice monthly during springtime using a water soluble fertilizer for blooming plants and then cut back to once monthly when the plant begins to bloom. In the spring after flowering take the agapanthus out of the pot and split the root ball in half. Move your plant from a pot to the ground. Potted non hardy plants should be moved to a cold greenhouse shed or garage for the duration of winter.

Avoid over wintering in warmth as this will affect flowering. Nourish it with a fertilizer that contains lots of phosphorous. Agapanthus benefit from an annual feeding in spring and organic mulch in the fall. Re pot the two halves into new 24 pots with fresh john innes no 3 compost.

A non blooming agapanthus plant may need fertilizer but not too much. Typically reaching 60cm 1 8m 2 6ft a few dwarf varieties such as lilliput with a height of 40cm 16in are also available. Make sure your plant has plenty of sun. Although they like to be potbound to flower well eventually they will flower a lot less or not at all.

Give them too much space and you may be rewarded with lots of leaves and no flowers. Agapanthus are terrific growers and will spread by themselves. All one can say about growing in pots is not to over pot by which i mean when a plant is pot bound transplant it into a pot the next size up so that the roots only have a small amount of fresh compost to venture into. Sturdy stems shoot up in summer carrying loosely spherical heads up to 25cm 10in across of trumpet shaped flowers usually in varying shades of blue with a few white selections too.

Over winter leave the pots in a cool frost free place such as a cold frame. Agapanthus hail from the south african cape so they appreciate plenty of sunshine. Stop fertilizing when the plant stops blooming usually in early autumn. Agapanthus have mounds of strappy bright green leaves.

These sway on tall stems above clumps of strappy foliage. Some types especially the evergreens may not be fully hardy so are best grown in containers that can be protected from frost over winter quick facts.