Freesia Pictures: freesia flower meaning Typesofflower.com Typesofflower.com

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering crops in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1866 by Chr. Fr. Echlon (1795-1868) and called after German botanist and doctor Friedrich Freese (1794-1878). It is indigenous to the eastern area of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most types being within Cape Provinces. Kinds of the former genus Anomatheca are now contained in Freesia. The crops commonly known as "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped blooms, are cultivated hybrids of lots of Freesia varieties. Some other varieties are also cultivated as ornamental vegetation.

These are herbaceous crops which increase from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm diameter, which delivers up a tuft of small leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm extra tall bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of plants with six tepals. Many types have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped plants, although those previously located in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have level flowers. Freesias are used as food crops by the larvae of some Lepidoptera varieties including Large Yellow Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

The vegetation usually called "freesias" are derived from crosses made in the 19th hundred years between F. refracta and F. leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these species and the green- and yellow-flowered forms of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have plants which range from white to yellowish, green, red and blue-mauve. These are mostly cultivated expertly in the Netherlands by about 80 growers.[3] Freesias can be commonly increased from seed. Because of the specific and desirable scent, they are generally used in hand ointments, shampoos, candles, etc.[citation needed], however, the blossoms are mainly used in wedding bouquets. They could be planted in the fall in USDA Hardiness Zones 9-10 (i.e. where the temperature does not fall season below about -7 ?C (20 ?F)), and in the springtime in Areas 4-8.

Freesia laxa (previously called Lapeirousia laxa or Anomatheca cruenta) is one of the other varieties of the genus which is often cultivated. Smaller than the scented freesia cultivars, it offers flat somewhat than cup-shaped plants. Extensive 'forcing' of this bulb occurs in two Moon Bay in California where several growers chill the bulbs in proprietary solutions to satisfy wintry dormancy which results in development of buds inside a predicted variety of weeks - often 5 weeks at 55 ?F (13 ?C).

Herbaceous plant life (in botanical use frequently simply herbal products) are crops that contain no continual woody stem above floor. Herbaceous vegetation may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Total annual herbaceous plants pass away completely by the end of the growing season or when they have got flowered and fruited, plus they then develop again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial crops may have stems that pass away by the end of the growing season, but elements of the plant endure under or near to the ground from season to season (for biennials, until the next growing season, when they bloom and die). New progress produces from living tissue left over on or under the bottom, including roots, a caudex (a thickened part of the stem at walk out) or numerous kinds of underground stems, such as lights, corms, stolons, rhizomes and tubers. Examples of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort; herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns & most grasses. By contrast, non-herbaceous perennial plants are woody vegetation which have stems above surface that stay alive through the dormant season and grow shoots the next time from the above-ground parts - included in these are trees, shrubs and vines.