The freesia is the ideal plant for beginners. It is not demanding in terms of care, it should only be watered regularly. Hobby gardeners are rewarded with a lush bloom in late summer.
Characteristics
- Family: Iris family (Iridaceae)
- Occurrence: Regions of Africa with winter precipitation
- Height: 25 - 40 cm, some varieties up to 100 cm
- Growth habit: upright, narrow
- Leaves: green, narrow, upright
- Flower shape: funnel-shaped, slightly fragrant, up to 8 cm long
- Flowering period: August - October
- Flower colors: white, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, multicolored
- Winter hardiness: not hardy
- Use: bedding plant, potted plant, cut flower
Location
The Freesia is a sun worshiper and thrives best when it gets as much light as possible. It only thrives in partially shaded places, but is already less blooming there. It also has no resistance to the blazing midday heat, provided it can compensate for the loss of moisture through the leaves through water absorption through the roots. A permanently moist soil is therefore indispensable in fully sunny locations.
Soil and substrate
If the freesia is planted outdoors, where it feels most comfortable, it is undemanding. Normal garden soil is usually enough for them to bloom nicely. The pH of the substrate should be neutral to slightly alkaline. The Freesia only tolerates lime to a limited extent.
If you want particularly richly blooming freesias, you should pay attention to the following soil properties:
- permeable
- humus
- slightly damp
If you plant the freesia in a pot or trough, make sure that you mix the soil with substrate that can store water well and release it back into the environment. Lava granules or expanded clay, for example, are suitable for this.
Note: Although the Freesia likes it constantly moist, it appreciates
no waterlogging. Therefore, when cultivating in pots or tubs, make sure that the bottom layer is a drainage made of expanded clay.Planting time
In the specialized trade, driven or already blooming freesias are often offered. In early spring, the onions are also sold, which can be planted outdoors from mid-May. Those who buy tubers early should keep them dark and not too warm. Room temperature is usually too high.
Tip: One to two weeks before you want to plant the bulbs out, you should spray the tubers with water or bathe them repeatedly in lukewarm water. This can accelerate budding after planting.
planting
Before you plant the Freesia, loosen the soil deeply. This can be omitted if you prepare the soil or pot with fresh substrate. The bulbs are planted 5 - 10 cm deep. Make sure you give the freesia enough space. A distance of 10 cm is sufficient for smaller varieties, varieties that can become very large should have at least 20-30 cm from the next plant.
Freesias also work very well as solitary flowers, but they come into their own when they are planted in color-coordinated individual groups.
to water
Drought quickly becomes a problem for the Freesia and it lets everything hang or may even shed the flowers prematurely. You should therefore water the plants regularly, especially if it has not rained for a long time. In the case of cultures in pots, you may even have to water at least once a day.
The freesia does not appreciate a temperature shock when watering. Therefore, do not use irrigation water directly from the tap, but use temperature-controlled water. You can either use rainwater collected in tons or tap water into one Fill the watering can and let it stand for several hours so that it can adjust to the ambient temperature adapts.
The ideal time to water is in the morning or in the morning. You shouldn't water the freesias in the greatest midday heat,
unless it is an acute emergency that the substrate has dried out badly and the plants are already drooping.Fertilize
The Freesia likes nutrient-rich soils, but basic fertilization with organic long-term fertilizers is sufficient. Ripe compost is sufficient as organic fertilizer, but you can also use commercially available fertilizer pellets that you work into the soil or mix into the substrate. As soon as the plants bloom, you can fertilize regularly with calibrated fertilizers. This has a positive effect on the flowers and makes them last longer or longer. the plants bloom more profusely.
Cut back
A pruning is usually not necessary with the freesia. It produces flowers continuously until the end of the season. However, you can remove dead flowers and cut back the remains so that they do not form seeds. The formation of seeds would cost it unnecessary strength, which would affect the plants' ability to flower.
The freesias are not poisonous to humans, so you don't need to take any safety precautions when removing flowers. It looks a little different with dogs and cats, for which the plants are poisonous.
If you use the Freesia as a cut flower, be sure to cut the stem close to the ground. This saves the plant a lot of strength, as it does not have to take care of any remaining flowering stems.
Multiplication
The freesia forms spherical capsule fruits, provided the plants have been pollinated. The fruits contain brown seeds that shine. Outside of their natural range, however, freesias rarely ripen to fruit. Due to the late flowering time from August onwards, seeds can only ripen if the plants are protected over the winter.
Instructions for propagation via seeds:
- Remove seed pods from completely dried flower stalks
- Let the seeds dry for a few days
- Keep seeds dry
- Let the seeds soak for 24 hours in early spring
- sow the next day in a mixture of soil and sand
Propagation via brood tubers is easier. You can find these in autumn when you dig up the freesias for overwintering right next to the mother tuber. After a few years, the mother tubers are no longer as blooming and should generally be replaced by younger tubers.
You can recognize the brood tubers by the fact that they are hanging on the side of the mother tuber or have already come loose. However, it takes several years for the brood bulbs to produce the first flowers.
Diseases
Exotics like freesia are often attacked by special plant diseases that they bring with them from their homeland. This also includes the freesia mosaic virus. In general, the plants are susceptible to mosaic viruses. In addition to a special type that only affects this type of plant, the bean mosaic virus can occasionally also appear. However, this is far less of a problem than the special Freesia mosaic virus that causes the leaves to turn brown and the
Plants only produce deformed flowers.In both cases, the plants can usually no longer be helped. In the initial stage you can still try to cut back the plants generously, but if the infestation is too great, you should dispose of the freesia in the general waste. This also applies if the plants are affected by tuber rot. The plants then wilt and die within a short time.
In this case, you should even generously remove the substrate. In the case of a culture in a pot or trough, you should sterilize the containers.
The tuber rot as well as the gray mold occur when it is damp for a long time and leaves or Soil are constantly moist. The freesias like it constantly slightly moist, but they cannot tolerate too much moisture. In both cases, drainage is also helpful in the garden soil, which tends to become waterlogged, and a sunny location so that the leaves can dry off.
Pests
Aphids and voles are the main problem for the freesia. The aphids pose a double threat as they are the main vector for the mosaic virus.
In the event of an aphid infestation, you should act as follows:
- Dissolve 50 g soft soap in 1 L warm water
- Let the solution cool down
- Generously spray affected plants with it
- repeat every two to three days
In addition, you should encourage beneficial insects in your garden in the fight against aphids. Aphid larvae eat several hundred aphids a day and are therefore a valuable weapon against these harmful insects.
One problem with planting outdoors are voles, for which the tubers are also not poisonous. Especially when the freesias simply don't want to drift, they have often fallen victim to the voles. If there is a risk of voles in the garden, you should not plant the tubers without protection. There are special planters in which you can put the tubers and which the voles cannot gnaw through. As a rule, the tubers are safe in them and these baskets have the advantage that you can simply lift the tubers out of the earth for wintering.
wintering
When the temperatures get colder again, the freesia usually moves in by itself. You can easily overwinter it as a tuber, for example in the basement, in a cool and frost-free place. In the open air, the tubers usually freeze to death at just a few degrees below zero, because the plant is not winter hardy.
Instructions for wintering:
- Cut off remnants of flowers and leaves
- Carefully remove the tubers from the earth
- Carefully remove the earth
- Place the tubers in a box filled with sand
- Occasionally spray tubers with water in winter
The tubers can be planted again from mid-May. Growing in an unheated greenhouse is not recommended. The freesia is particularly susceptible to disease there, and because it is not winter hardy, late frosts, in which even the temperatures in the greenhouse drop sharply, can damage the plants.
