My agapanthus - herbaceous perennials originating from South Africa (better know as the African lily) - are looking fabulous right now.

If you come home with a few of these beauties from the nursery, avoid placing them in a shady area as you will get more leaf than flower. Instead they enjoy a south or west facing aspect and so your sunny seating area would be ideal, they’re real showstoppers in large containers.

Plant crowns 5cm deep in spring, they do like to become almost pot bound, their thick white roots need to fill the pot to establish a regular flowering routine.

To propagate existing plants you can divide in spring or early autumn, after flowering, making sure you have a couple of growing points in each divided part, this can be quite a task as they are so pot bound, you only need to increase the pot size slightly, botanical cruelty is what we are looking for here!

The best variety to go for is Agapanthus Northern Star (RHS Award of Merit) - this is a hardier violet-blue variety. Alternatively, try Agapanthus Liam’s Lilac for pale lavender summer blooms or Agapanthus White Heaven for classy white summer flowers.

Wisteria Wars

It always amazes me the growth a Wisteria puts on in such a short space of time, one minute all neat and trimmed then on the next check it’s like day of the triphids!

People worry about pruning wisteria but there is no need, it just needs to be done twice a year - winter (January or February is best) and now for the summer prune.

You can either tie in the long wispy shoots if your plant is wall trained or trim these to tidy the plant up if it’s freestanding.

For the prune, cut back to five or six buds from main framework, just above a bud, these shoots can then be shortened further in winter to two buds. This will keep things neat and tidy for autumn, the plant will be less likely to get damaged by winds if its not so dense and it will help let light in to ripen the wood and form lots of flower buds for next year.