Freesia Pictures: Yellow freesia bouquet

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plant life in the family Iridaceae, first referred to as a genus in 1866 by Chr. Fr. Echlon (1795-1868) and named after German botanist and doctor Friedrich Freese (1794-1878). It is native to the eastern side of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most varieties being found in Cape Provinces. Varieties of the ex - genus Anomatheca are now contained in Freesia. The crops often called "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped bouquets, are cultivated hybrids of lots of Freesia types. Some other species are also cultivated as ornamental plant life.

They are simply herbaceous plants which develop from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm size, which delivers up a tuft of thin leaves 10-30 cm long, and a sparsely branched stem 10-40 cm high bearing a few leaves and a loose one-sided spike of blooms with six tepals. Many types have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped flowers, although those previously located in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have toned flowers. Freesias are being used as food vegetation by the larvae of some Lepidoptera varieties including Large Yellowish Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

The vegetation usually called "freesias" derive from crosses made in the 19th century between F. refracta and F. leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these varieties and the pink- and yellow-flowered forms of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have bouquets ranging from white to yellow, red, red and blue-mauve. They are mostly cultivated skillfully in the Netherlands by about 80 growers.[3] Freesias can be immediately increased from seed. Because of their specific and pleasing scent, they are often used in side ointments, shampoos, candles, etc.[citation needed], however, the bouquets are mainly utilized in wedding bouquets. They could be planted in the semester in USDA Hardiness Zones 9-10 (i.e. where the temperature does not land below about -7 ?C (20 ?F)), and in the spring and coil in Zones 4-8.

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

Herbaceous plant life (in botanical use frequently simply herbal selections) are plants which may have no persistent woody stem above surface. Herbaceous vegetation may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annual herbaceous plants expire completely by the end of the growing season or when they may have flowered and fruited, plus they then develop again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial crops may have stems that die by the end of the growing season, but parts of the plant endure under or near to the ground from season to season (for biennials, until the next growing season, when they blossom and expire). New expansion produces from living tissue left over on or under the ground, including origins, a caudex (a thickened part of the stem at walk out) or various types of underground stems, such as bulbs, corms, stolons, rhizomes and tubers. Types of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort; herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns and most grasses. By contrast, non-herbaceous perennial plant life are woody plant life which have stems above surface that remain alive during the dormant season and develop shoots the next yr from the above-ground parts - these include trees, shrubs and vines.