A beautiful dark purple Agapanthus Blackjack, bred at The Aloe Farm in Hartbeespoort, won yet another international award.

The plant was crowned Plant of the Year at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London earlier this year, and has just won the Best in Category in Herbaceous Perennials and the Visitor Vote 2023 at the Horticultural Trades Association Plant Awards in England.

Andy de Wet of The Aloe Farm and his colleague Quintin Bean bred the stunning plant.

De Wet and Bean have spent almost two decades crossing, combining, and recombining thousands of carefully selected agapanthus varieties to produce Blackjack.

“It was an intensive scientific and expensive process over 18 years to finally produce Blackjack. We knew it would be popular,” De Wet says.

What makes this agapanthus so special is not just the very dark purple colour, it is a strong-growing plant that is disease-resistant and produces strong upright stems with bigger and fuller flower clusters that do not droop and flower for a long period.

The Aloe Farm’s agapanthus varieties recently received more international recognition with the announcement by Royal Flora Holland that the agapanthus varieties bred there flower for 100 days.