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Agapanthus inapertus ssp. pendulus 'Graskop' (Grassland Agapanthus) - A striking deciduous perennial with neat clumps of strap shaped light green leaves to 2 feet tall. In July and August expect the flowering stems to rise another foot above the foliage and bear incredibly dark nearly black buds, which are held upright but bend over to be pendulous when the pedicels elongate and the dark violet purple flowers open.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and give regular late spring and summer irrigation. Useful in mass plantings, smaller groups or specimen plantings or as a potted plant. This plant is winter deciduous (starts going down in mid-fall) but tolerates winter rain while dormant and can withstand colder temperatures than the evergreen Agapanthus, though a good mulching is recommended for temperatures below 15 F.
The name Agapanthus is derived from the Greek words 'agapé', meaning "love" or "friendship" and 'anthos', meaning "flower" and it is for this reason that "Love Flower" is sometimes given as its common name, though there does not seem to be any colloquial usage of this name and the reason for naming as such remains unclear. Some have suggested that the translation could be interpreted as "lovely flower", "flower of love" or if the name originated from the word 'Agapeo' which means "to be contented with" it could just refer to a flower Charles Louis L'Héritier, who first used the name Agapanthus. A good accounting of this is presented by Wim Snoeijer in his Agapanthus: A Revision of the Genus Timber Press 2004 but essentially Carl Linnaeus (the father of modern taxonomy) in 1753 published the name Crinum africanum for a plant likely brought back to Holland from the Cape of Good Hope by the year 1679. In 1789 Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle, the Director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, changed the name of this plant to Agapanthus but used the invalid specific epithet umbellatus instead of preserving Linnaeus species name africanus. This mistake has perpetuated naming problems within the genus ever since. In addition, the common "Lily of the Nile" is often used for this plant even though this plant originated in South Africa and not along the Nile River.
Agapanthus inapertus ssp. pendulus 'Graskop' is a naturally occurring form of Agapanthus inapertus from the summer rainfall area of Mpumalanga near the town of Graskop in the northeast Transvaal where is grows as a grassland component. The name Graskop comes from the vast area of grassland (grassveld) so named for the lack of trees in the area. This plant was originally introduced in 1987 by the South African National Botanic Garden at Kirstenbosch and we grew and sold it from 2008 until 2022.
Information displayed on this page about Agapanthus inapertus ssp. pendulus 'Graskop' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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