Growing agapanthus must be the best test of a gardening green-thumb. For if you can't grow this plant - taking into consideration that others nearby can - then you may want to consider finding a new hobby.

Just before the start of spring I dug up all my agapanthus bulbs and moved them to another part of the garden where nothing else would grow. Being the start of summer, they're now flowering their heads off and looking very healthy.

Although I was able to fit most of my agapanthi (is that a word?) into their new location I had a few spare and so tossed them into the pruning pile. There they would sit until I finally found time to compost them with the other garden refuse.

Not content with their new habitat, these bulbs began to grow and are now in the process of producing flowers - albeit on top of a rubbish heap! Only agapanthus could grow and flower here.

Apart from any soil that was still attached to their root system they have basically grown in air. They've had no water, apart from natural rainfall, and they've been given absolutely no fertilisers, no TLC and certainly no attention whatsoever. Yet they're flourishing.

Could this be the plant to end all plants? Certainly, if it were to escape into our native vegetation it could become an environmentalist's worst nightmare. But, if you're like me with a garden bed where every previous plant has died or failed then this could be your answer.

And you're not limited by colour either. Traditionally agapanthus flowers have been predominantly blue but now they travail the blue to purple hues bookended by the darker Black Pantha. Then the complete showstopping white can be mixed and matched and to add another dimension to your garden beds is the dwarfing varieties.

Sure, these are 'grandma plants' ...the type of plants you remember growing in her garden during your childhood years. And while you struggle to quantify the time period that's elapsed, you realise they've been around for awhile. Are they going to disappear off our landscape radars in the near future?

Not likely. Certainly not if they can survive the inhospitable rubbish heaps we discard them on.