On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 08:29:59 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:


Years ago I used to keep my freesias going year after year, IIRC by
letting the pots dry out in the greenhouse (frost free) in autumn,
then re-potting all the bulbs and offsets in fresh compost next year
to get them growing again. The numbers increased steadily, BUT over
two or three years, all the reds, purples etc died out, and all I had
left were yellows.

We were given a bunch of freesias a few months ago, but they had
absolutely no scent. Most disappointing. Is this the result of
intensive breeding to get earlier/bigger/whatever flowers?

We keep ours going (winter flower crop) by drying them off in the
spring after flowering and letting them get thoroughly cooked in the
greenhouse 'til about now. We'll sort them out this week or next and
pot all the flowering sized corms 5 to a 5inch pot and put them
outside 'til frost threatens. Doing that, we seem to have lost most of
the yellows which seem to be the most fragrant. We keep growing a few
from seed and they give us an autumn crop of flowers in their first
year.
Dunno how the commercial growers get those huge flowers with 6mm thick
stems, I prefer my thin wiry bent stems - they look much nicer in a
vase. Well that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it.
Rod

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