Freesias - Doubles Mix

Family: Iridaceae

Common Name(s): NA

Native to: Africa

Flowering: Mild Winters: Winter-Spring. Cold Winters: Spring-Summer

Watering: Water well through the growing season but cut back during flowering time. Stop watering altogether once the foliage dies down and dries up.

Planting Aspect: Full Sun

Preferred Climate:

 

Temperate, Subtropical, Grassland

Description

Freesias are grown for their bright, goblet shaped flowers and many varieties have deliciously scented spring flavours. Hybridising has produced and made available many new large flowered and full double petaled varieties that are sold as container plants, cut flowers and dormant bulbs for summer bedding. The wiry, arching stems can rise to a height of 30cm or more and will produce showy flowers borne on upward facing combs above slender, bayonet shaped leaves fanning out at the base of the plants.

They look best in a massed display and are excellent cut flowers. Freesias need heat to grow well and can withstand very little frost; therefore they can be grown for winter and spring flowering only where winters are mild. In extremely cold areas they can be planted out in spring for spring-summer flowering.

Cultivation

Choose a sunny position and plant the corms 5cm deep and 7 to 8cm apart in fertile, moist but well drained soil. A liquid organic fertiliser can be applied as soon as the first growth appears above ground. Water well through the growing season but cut back during flowering time. Stop watering altogether once the foliage dies down and dries up. Leave the bulb clumps undisturbed for up to 3 years or until they become crowded and then divide them in late summer. In colder areas, lift corms after the foliage dies down, store over the winter and replant in spring when danger of frost is past.

Freesias can also be grown indoors but to do this, they should be planted in autumn in deep pots or containers and kept outside until the night temperature drops below 8 degrees. Bring the pots indoors; keep the temperature between 10 and 15 degrees at night and a brightly lit position during the day. Feed once a week and keep moist. Once flowering is over, the containers can be placed outside. Protect against aphids, mites and thrips.