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Freesia
Also called Kammetjies
Freesias are a genus of corm-forming perennials from southern Africa, best known through fragrant hybrid cultivars grown for cut flowers. Grow them from corms in a sunny spot with well-drained soil and a cool winter rest period.
Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1866 by Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1886) and named after the German botanist and medical practitioner, Friedrich Freese (1795–1876). It is native to the eastern side of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most species being found in Cape Provinces. Species of the former genus Anomatheca are now included in Freesia. The plants commonly known as "freesias", with fragrant funnel-shaped flowers, are cultivated hybrids of a number of Freesia species. Some other species are also grown as ornamental plants.
The plants usually called "freesias" in horticulture and floristry are derived from crosses made in the 19th century between Freesia refracta and Freesia leichtlinii. Numerous cultivars have been bred from these species and the pink- and yellow-flowered forms of Freesia corymbosa. Modern tetraploid cultivars have flowers ranging from white to yellow, pink, red and blue-mauve. They are mostly cultivated professionally in the Netherlands by about 80 growers. Freesias can be readily increased from seed.
The flowers themselves are mainly used in wedding bouquets. The flower's fragrance cannot be extracted with a solvent; in the early 1980s International Flavors & Fragrances used their "Living Flowers" headspace technology to analyze live freesia blooms and the analysis was used for the first time in a fragrance: Antonia's Flowers (1984).
Freesia alba · Karoo Kammetjie · Fragrant Freesia · Riversdale Freesia · False freesia · Showy Freesia · Renoster Kammetjie · Green Kammetjie
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Freesia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
