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A: Agapanthus often takes a couple of years to settle down and flower generously. The height depends on the variety, not how established it is. Hardy, dark-blue ‘Lilliput’ has 12in stems over 5in leaves and the drumstick heads are only 3-4in across; it dies right down in winter. ‘Bressingham Blue’ grows to 30in and also dies down. I grow the less hardy, sky-blue ‘Grainger’s Gross’, bred by a friend of mine, and it has 5ft stems above 2ft leaves, with heads fully 8in across; when it is planted in 18in pots, the heads rise up taller than me, and in August I have to look through them to see the garden from my office window. I keep the pots in an unheated greenhouse over the winter. ‘Purple Cloud’ is just as big and a spectacular dark purple, but it likes to stay evergreen. Letting it freeze knocks back the foliage, which weakens the plant and reduces flowering, so like most of the tall varieties it’s best in a pot and overwintered under cover.

Q: I planted a variegated ivy to climb up a wall but it refuses to stick to it. Why? - Mrs P. Steel, Stockton on Tees.

A: When the stems of a newly bought ivy move in the wind, the new aerial roots at the tips of the stems can’t get a grip. Push in a few canes tight to the wall on the outside of the plant to stop any movement, then the tips will start to cling. Once they have a firm hold (next spring), the canes can be removed. This only works in summer, when the new growth is developing. But you can cut the plant down to the ground in winter, and the resulting new shoots will then cling perfectly.

Q: How do I prune my hibiscus? - Mr I. Prentice, London E2

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A: One of the perks of writing this column is to be able to wax lyrical about favourite plants. Another is to slag off pet hates, and here is one: hibiscus syriacus. I know, I know… it flowers generously and brightly right through the second half of the summer and into the autumn – reds, whites, even blues – and it grows in hot, difficult soils. But it also looks like a child’s painting of a shrub, a solid, shapeless, unvarying wodge of upright stems spattered with gauche flowers from top to bottom. In winter it’s a mass of peculiar, knobbly grey twigs.

If it has a virtue it’s this: it requires virtually no pruning. Just cut out any awkward growths in winter and occasionally thin the outer canopy to let the air in. I’d dig it out and make room for something with a bit of grace and poise – but then that’s me; take no notice.

Q: I have some plants of acanthus spinosus that are about two years old. This year they have not flowered. The leaves appear to be healthy. Have you any ideas, please? - Mrs A. Hitch, Chichester

A: Here’s a feast or famine plant. You put it in and you wait for it to flower and it does, and all seems fine for a couple of years. But then it starts to pop up everywhere round about and refuses to be contained. Digging around it only damages the roots, which makes it sucker all the more. Ah, but it’s worth it for all those great towering thistle heads. You could go into battle armed with acanthus heads.

The reason you are waiting for the flower is this: rather than dig up a big flowering crown for sale, nurserymen usually pot up sideshoots or suckers, which take time to build up to flowering size. Even then, after the first flowering there may be a year off while the sideshoots around that first flowered crown build up to flowering size. Thereafter it should all be plain sailing. So it sounds as if you are in that first gap.

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