How to Prune Agapanthus
Pruning agapanthus plants will encourage new growth all season long. Prune agapanthus with help from the spokesperson for new plants in this free video clip.
Transcript
My favorite activity in the garden, pruning. This is Nicholas Staddon from Monrovia Nursery and we're going to talk about how to prune agapanthus. So the question is how do you prune agapanthus. And the answer really is you don't. The only thing that you might prune off is when the flower spikes have completely finished their blooming cycle and they're setting seeds. You would come in with your pruners sharp as they are and down near the foliage you would cut the flower off. And because this plant is looking so gorgeous right now, I can't do that. When it comes to the leaves it's a natural part of the process with agapanthus and this magnificent variegated variety is called Sunstroke by the way, it's really natural that some of these leaves turn brown. And at the end, really easy, take your pruners and you just cut a little V. You just cut off that dead piece. So the leaves still look good. If it's a whole leaf, that sometimes happen, you just pull them off. And they'll come away easily in your hand. There's one more, and then those you can put into the compost heap. This is a beautiful little agapanthus, it's called Baby Pete. Baby Pete actually is the world's almost seedless agapanthus, the first of its kind. And every now and again you'll get a little brown leaf, something like this. You just go in there with your fingers and you just quietly nip them off. It's very therapeutic and it keeps Baby Pete looking absolutely great. You put them in the bucket and then you put those leaves on the compost pile. This is agapanthus Midnight Blue standing variety. It's the bluest of any agapanthus, notice the yellow leaf here, just pull it off. During the winter time depending on where you are in America, some of these agapanthus will stay evergreen and some of them will just go back to the ground. Just leave that foliage on the ground. Leave it be. It makes fantastic natural compost and then first thing in the spring the new growth will come out of the ground and as if by magic. So you really don't have to prune agapanthus at all, just a little bit of manicuring with hands is all you need. So there. You discovered the answer to your question. This is Nicholas Staddon from Monrovia nursery on how to prune agapanthus.
