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Agapanthus 'Grey Ghost' (Grey Ghost Dwarf Lily of the Nile) – A small variety of Agapanthus that forms clumps to 12 inches tall of gray-green leaves with fine white striations and many flower stalks to 18 inches with uniform heads of white flowers that shed the flowers cleanly without forming seed, leaving attractive starburst umbels of narrow flower peduncles. As with other such agapanthus, 'Grey Ghost' tolerates near coastal conditions, moderate frost and neglect.
This plant prefers to grow in full sun but will tolerate light shade at the expense of heavy flowering. It requires average irrigation in late spring and summer. The foliage is cold hardy to about 25° F. and root hardy below 15° F. Agapanthus 'Grey Ghost' is a plant that was found in 1983 in a block of seed grown Agapanthus 'Peter Pan' at Persson's Nursery in Pasadena by Blair Haynes of Shinglehouse Nursery & Design in Coos Bay. In a large block of plants he noted it was the only one with creamy white foliage. While this foliage color is quite evident on plants growing at our location, Blair has since noted that it does not hold onto it in his cool coastal Oregon location but that it flowers heavier than most other plants called 'Peter Pan' and is also a white flowering form. As noted on our Agapanthus 'Peter Pan' webpage, there was once a single named dwarf blue flowering Agapanthus selection made by Jimmy Giridlian at his Oakhurst Gardens in 1949 called 'Peter Pan', but many nurseries wanting to more rapidly increase their stock began growing 'Peter Pan' from seed which resulted in many varieties of Agapanthus being sold as 'Peter Pan', but none so unique as this one.
We thank Blair Haynes from providing us with our initial stock of this very nice plant in 2019 and we love the name as we have introduced other plants with similarly colored foliage that we have named "Gray Ghost" (but using the American english language spelling of "gray" with an "a" instead of an "e") such as Dietes 'Gray Ghost' and Agave striata 'Gray Ghost".
This information about Agapanthus 'Grey Ghost' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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