Agapanthus

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Worked heavily by bumblebees, which enter the trumpets properly, and by honey bees. In South Africa it is visited by carpenter bees and sunbirds, and Cape honey bees work it in its native range.

A moderately deep trumpet, suiting bumblebees and larger bees more than small solitary species.

Worth knowing

A good summer nectar source, with each head offering dozens of flowers in a single visit.

Flowering

In flower

July to September (northern hemisphere)

A high summer flow of several weeks.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun on free-draining soil. The evergreen forms need shelter from hard frost; the deciduous ones are considerably hardier.

Size

60-120 cm tall in flower.

Native range

South Africa, principally the Western and Eastern Cape.

Suits

Containers and window boxes, Small gardens, Large gardens

• Deciduous forms are far hardier than evergreen ones — worth knowing before buying in a cold garden.
• Flowers better when the roots are restricted, which makes it an excellent container plant.
• Naturalised and invasive in parts of Australia and New Zealand; check before planting there.

What it looks like

Strap-shaped leaves in dense clumps with tall bare stems carrying rounded umbels of many trumpet-shaped flowers in blue shades or white.