Freesia Pictures: Double freesia bridal bouquet

Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering vegetation 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 native to the eastern aspect of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most species being found in Cape Provinces. Varieties of the former genus Anomatheca are now included in Freesia. The plants often called "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped flowers, are cultivated hybrids of lots of Freesia kinds. Some other species are also expanded as ornamental plant life.

They are really herbaceous crops which expand from a conical corm 1-2.5 cm size, which directs up a tuft of thin 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 bouquets with six tepals. Many types have fragrant narrowly funnel-shaped blooms, although those previously placed in the genus Anomatheca, such as F. laxa, have smooth flowers. Freesias are being used as food vegetation by the larvae of some Lepidoptera types including Large Yellow Underwing.

CULTIVATION AND USES

The plant life usually called "freesias" derive from crosses manufactured in the 19th hundred years between F. refracta and F. leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these species and the pink- and yellow-flowered forms of F. corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have bouquets which range from white to yellowish, pink, red and blue-mauve. They are really mostly cultivated professionally in the Netherlands by about 80 growers.[3] Freesias can be immediately increased from seed. Due to their specific and pleasing scent, they are generally used in hands products, shampoos, candles, etc.[citation needed], however, the blossoms are mainly used in wedding bouquets. They can be planted in the semester in USDA Hardiness Zones 9-10 (i.e. where the temperature will not land below about -7 ?C (20 ?F)), and in the spring in Zones 4-8.

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

Herbaceous plant life (in botanical use frequently simply natural herbs) are plant life which may have no continual woody stem above surface. Herbaceous plant life may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annual herbaceous plants pass away completely by the end of the growing season or when they may have flowered and fruited, and they then grow again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial vegetation may have stems that pass away at the end of the growing season, but parts of the plant endure under or close to the ground from season to season (for biennials, before next growing season, when they rose and perish). New progress evolves from living tissues left over on or under the ground, including root base, 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. Types of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort; herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns and most grasses. In comparison, non-herbaceous perennial plants are woody plants that have stems above ground that remain alive through the dormant season and expand shoots the next yr from the above-ground parts - included in these are trees and shrubs, shrubs and vines.