Freesias

[Tim Harberd]

Is anyone else out there interested in ‘ordinary’ Florist’s Freesias?  The bulbs are freely available in Garden Centres, but (with me) are always a disappointment.

A couple of years ago I saved a bit of seed from some GC stock, and I thought I’d mislabelled them, because the resulting seedlings far outgrew their parents!

I then made the mistake of assuming that the ‘bulb mechanism’ was to survive winter… and put the resulting bulbs in my greenhouse for the following summer.

Those bulbs FINALLY sprung into life in the autumn, so I now have Freesias on my window-sill!

Tim DH

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Tim,
I love freesias of any sort
I think your experience bears out what the Bulb Despot has being saying for years - that growing from seed in successive generations will acclimatize plants to your conditions so that each new generation approaches their optimum growth.
Now you just need to select for the best fragrance!
cheers
fermi

[Roma]

I think the Freesia corms for sale in garden centres have been treated to flower in summer.  They are normally winter growers.  Seeds are usually available from the popular seed merchants.  It's a while since I,ve grown them but I think they flower in about a year. 
I like that orange coloured one

[Tim Harberd]

    The 2016 show has just started... all grown from seed.

    Last year I got fed up of tying the plants to stakes... It was a constant loosing battle with them flopping all over the place... so this year I've been trialling growing the plants up clear plastic tubes.. The best source of these I have found are 2Litre Bottled Water bottles..... 17p each from Lidl!!.. The tube created is about 9cm across and 27cm long.. The plants grew really nicely to about 40cms long.. and then disaster!

    Does anyone know of any other sources for cheap clear plastic tubes which are a little bigger?



Tim DH

[brianw]

*
Does anyone know of any other sources for cheap clear plastic tubes which are a little bigger?
*
How about tree guards. Some are near transparent, or bend thin sheet into a tube.

[monocotman]

I've grown them over the years from seed and find them very straight forward in general purpose compost.
No need to buy bulbs.
Suttons used to sell the 'van staaveran' strain which always grew well and always flowered in the first year.
If you set them off early in spring they can make huge plants with branching flower spikes by the autumn.
Even average care will produce flowering plants in a matter of months.
No waiting for years before seeing the blooms.
Looking on their web site now they sell a tetraploid royals strain which may well be the same thing and after flowering you still have the new bulbs.
As regards holding them up, has anyone tried tall 2 litre pop bottles?
David

[Tim Harberd]

Hi Brian,
   Thanks for suggesting tree guards... Not something I'd thought of.. They certainly have the length, but the max diameter I can find (in clear plastic) is 50mm. Also, they are spiral, so may have a tendency to flop themselves without a young tree in the middle!

Hi David,
   I've tried some 'tetraploid royal' seed.. I'm fairly certain the yellow flower I posted last week is of that type.. The flowers are a massive 60mm across.. Very showy.
   2 Litre pop bottles seem to be identical to the 2 Litre water bottles I'm using. You can get them for 17p each too!  I suspect 2 litre cider bottles are the same, apart from the price!! I've only seen larger units of water in sort of corrugated cubic bottles, which are no taller than the 2Litre bottles.

Tim DH