Freesia is a universal plant. For its cultivation, open areas in the garden and home conditions are suitable. This flower is a perennial culture, so for its breeding you should choose a place where the tropical resident will feel comfortable. How planting freesia and caring for it, read the article.
Flower Overview
Freesia is considered an elegant and elegant garden culture. The flower has a delicate, delicate aroma, which is used in the perfume industry. Thanks to the delicious smell, beautiful compositions are created. The flower for Europe was opened by a scientist from Germany, Friedrich Frieze, hence the name. More often than others, a hybrid plant form is found in gardens. Planting freesia and caring for it require compliance with certain rules, since the African beauty is a very capricious culture.
Flower description
Freesia is a compact herbaceous plant whose height is one meter. The stem is branched, the leaves are thin, their color is dark green, length is 15-20 cm, width is from one to one and a half centimeters. Propagated by bulbs, which are updated every year: last year's die off, new ones replace them. The flower stalk is subtle, racemose inflorescences are formed on it. They collected funnel-shaped buds. They are white, cream, pink, blue, yellow, purple, orange, red.
Particularly interesting varieties are found with petals of a combined color. Among florists, such flowers are very much appreciated. Of these, wedding bouquets are often made up. It is no coincidence that this flower symbolizes youth, beauty, serenity and trust. Freesia is of different varieties, with simple and double flowers. In the first variety, the petals are arranged in one row, in the second - in several. The flowering period of freesia is long in time. It starts in August, ends before the onset of frost.
Terry freesia
This is a hybrid form of a flower with a height of 45-60 cm. It is mainly used in cut form. Growing freesia is also possible in pots. The buds are formed six months after planting. The plant can bloom for another 10 days in a vase after it has been cut and placed in water. In this case, the aroma is not lost. Stems are recommended to be cut when two flowers or more are opened. Tubers are constantly updated. After flowering, development stops. Part of the plant dies off the ground. After this, preparation of terry freesia for planting and care begins. The procedure is the same as for other varieties of culture. Bulbs are first processed and then germinated until sprouts appear. Only after that they land in the ground.
Features in the cultivation
It is better to plant a flower in a greenhouse, greenhouse or in the home. Under these conditions, the plant blooms even in winter. But in the open, this does not always happen. Often, even experienced flower growers cannot wait for the flowering of a beautiful plant in their garden, although they groom and cherish it. But for distillation in flowerpots or pots there are no problems. If you plant freesia in September, it will bloom in early spring. The main feature of this culture is that for any plants, indoor or garden, an annual transplant is needed.
Bulb preparation
To plant freesia and care for it in the future, you need to prepare and germinate planting material. So that corms planted in the ground in a permanent place do not die, they should first be grown at home in boxes or containers with fertile soil. To do this, you need:
- Choose the strongest bulbs. Prepare a solution of potassium permanganate and soak them for two to three hours. Disinfection is needed to protect planting material from fungus.
- Then drawers of small height with holes in the bottoms are prepared and filled with light nutrient soil. Suitable composition of turf land, peat and coarse sand. Soil can be bought specifically for bulb plants. The bottom of the box is covered with a small layer of soil, about two centimeters thick. Bulbs are placed in it and sprinkled with earth for one centimeter.
- Bulb boxes should be placed in a warm place with no drafts. They will sprout quickly, most importantly, provide daily watering. When sprouts appear, moisturizing should be even more plentiful. Excess fluid will exit through the holes. At this time, an important condition is to maintain a high temperature in the room. In the daytime, it should be within 18 ° C, at night - 14.
Bulb planting in the ground
The soil in the selected area in the garden should be moisture permeable and fertile. Freesia responds well, especially during flowering, to the introduction of rotted humus, compost, and mineral fertilizers. The composition of the soil should be neutral, with a good drainage layer.
Planting and care for freesia should be carried out when the plants in the boxes grow to 10 cm in height, the weather is established and the air and soil warms up. Germinated bulbs are planted through three to five centimeters. If they are large, the landing depth should be 8-10 cm, if shallow - four to six. Planting of freesia in spring is carried out in bright areas with partial shade. So delicate petals will be protected from the sun. This time falls at the end of the month of May, when the threat of frost appears.
After planting freesia in open ground, water the plants abundantly and mulch the soil with peat. To keep moisture in the soil, the layer must be thick. For flower growth 13-20 o C is considered the optimum temperature. If it drops sharply, peduncles will be short, if it rises, intensive development of leaves begins, buds do not form.
Freesia: outdoor cultivation and care
The flower is so beautiful that even its capricious nature does not stop gardeners. They grow it with pleasure. To maintain moisture balance in the soil, its surface must be mulched. In addition to peat, the use of steamed straw is encouraged. In addition, plants need weeding, cultivation, so that oxygen is better supplied to the roots. Freesia in the garden and so blooms long enough. But to extend this pleasure, you should trim the stems by 1/3. This is best done while cutting flowers. Growing freesia in the open ground and caring for it involves watering, fertilizing, installing supports, pest protection and much more.
Watering
Freesia is capricious, so it needs a special watering regime. The plant needs a lot of water during the growth process and during flowering, the duration of which is 45 days. The soil should be always moist. In addition to watering, you need to spray leaves and stems. Procedures should be performed in the evening, so that the flowers absorb moisture during the night. If this is done in the morning, the water will evaporate in the sun, and the plants will not get anything. When the blooming period ends, watering should be reduced, and then completely stopped. Growing in the garden, the flower is in the ground until frost.
Top dressing
Growing freesia is impossible without additional nutrition, which is fertilizer. They should be applied to the soil every 15 days. This plant does not have immunity against soil salinity, therefore, nutritional supplements should be liquid solutions. Dry mixes are not suitable. You can cook such dressing yourself. To do this, 35 g of superphosphate or 10 g of potassium salts are dissolved in a bucket of water.
Flower support
Freesia garden has weak and bending peduncles. To prevent them from breaking the wind, you need to install supports and tie up plants to them. A grid is used for this. Plants are tied when their height reaches 15-20 cm. Supports help plants to maintain a vertical position, because for their growth, conditions are needed under which light and air will spread evenly. This is possible if the stems are not curved, and therefore the support is installed. The height of the flowers during their growth will increase. The grid needs to be increased or raised.
Freesia at home
This flower can be grown as an indoor crop. In this case, in certain conditions, it blooms in the winter. If the bulbs are bought in a specialty store, their storage conditions are unknown. To be safe, corms need to provide increased humidity and high temperature. To do this, wrap the planting material in gauze and put in a warm place above the source of water. A grid is suitable for placing bulbs. At this time, the peduncle is laying, which is why this procedure is important. Such bulbs will bloom in winter.
When to plant freesia? This is best done in the fall. For planting, you need to stock up in deep pots. Their diameter should be 10-12 cm. They are filled with soil with a thickness of 20 cm. Five to six bulbs are planted in one pot to a depth equal to their number. Plants need fertile soil. To do this, prepare a mixture of turf land, peat, humus and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 2: 1.
Freesia loves neutral soil with good permeability. After the planting is completed, the pots with bulbs must be taken out to the balcony. But you can also dig into the soil on the garden plot until the autumn frosts. With the onset of October, the pots are transferred to a room with an air temperature of 10-12 ° C.
To bloom in the spring, bulbs are planted in pots in October, at the end of the month. After planting, they must be placed in a warm room, in which there is always high humidity. When the leaves begin to grow, additional illumination is needed to increase the duration of daylight hours. Before the onset of flowering, this period is reduced by three hours.
Flower Care
When plants are grown at home, and especially flowering, there is always a lot of trouble with them. What care does home freesia need?
- In order for the leaves to maintain their shape, the plants are tied to supports. You can, of course, not do this. But then the leaves will hang or even break. Such a bush cannot be called attractive.
- The plant needs to be cleaned in a dry room with warm air for a period of 30 days. This is important for reproduction, since it was at this time that new corms appeared on it.
- During the growing season, the room temperature should be 20-25 ° C. Watering should be reduced. Dry peduncles regularly cut.
- During dormancy, the soil needs to be moistened rarely.
- Indoor flower prefers bright light, without any shading.
- Freesia is a moisture-loving plant, therefore, needs daily spraying, especially in the intense summer heat. After the procedure, the flower does not need to be placed in the sun again, it is better to remove it from the windowsill until the leaves and stems dry, otherwise they will get burns.
- It is important to remember that the watering regimen always needs to be changed depending on the periods of development. So, during flowering, the plant must be watered abundantly, and when germinating the bulbs, on the contrary, reduce their number and be sure to observe the frequency. If you break the watering regime, the bulbs will rot.
- Room freesia needs to be fed regularly, this is done in the growth process with a frequency of 14 days. For this, special additives of mineral origin are used. For example, potassium and phosphorus in the amount of three and two grams, respectively, per liter of water. You can apply complex fertilizers.
- To increase soil fertility, a special mixture is used that is suitable for bulb crops. If desired, it can be prepared at home. To do this, sheet soil and humus are taken in equal amounts, a little sand is added, everything is mixed. The bottom of the pot should be with drainage holes to remove excess water and prevent rotting of the bulbs.
- Plants need spacious pots. It is easier to plant freesia in them and, when it grows, carry out care. Immediately after flowering, the plant withers, its ground part dries out, the bulbs are dug up and stored until the next season or transplanted into another pot with new soil after preliminary processing.
Bulb Storage
To do this, they need to be placed in a grid and left in any warm room. The temperature should be 21-25 , humidity - 80%. If there are no such conditions, a container with water is substituted under the net. Every month, throughout the entire storage period, the bulbs are moved, rotten and sick are discarded. 30 days before planting on the garden plot, they need to be transferred to a cool room where the air temperature will be 10-15 ° C. Experienced growers use dry peat to store bulbs. If there are small frosts in winter, you can leave them in the ground, but be sure to cover them with spruce branches or fallen leaves.
Protection against diseases and pests
Freesias are often damaged due to improper care. Their enemies are spider mites, aphids, thrips. This culture, having low immunity, can not resist rot, scab, fusarium. On examination, diseased plants should be removed immediately. For preventive purposes, the bulbs are cleaned and disinfected immediately after they are dug up. Before planting in the new season they need to be treated again with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
So that aphids and ticks do not appear on plants, they must be sprayed twice a season using a soap solution. If rot appears on the leaves, they need to be treated with a drug called Fundazole. You can use a solution of potassium permanganate for this.