How To Force Freesia Bulbs

In winter, your window garden can be filled with the most delicious scent in the world, that of the tender Freesia lacteal. This South African traveler is very easy to grow, for the bulb doesn't require a chilling period. However, the top-heavy flowers on thin, arching stems and the long, grassy foliage do require support of some kind. And the best time for arranging this support is at planting time. Here is my easy method for planting, staking, and forcing freesia indoors:

In October (or November at the latest), fill a crocked, unglazed clay pot half-full with any well-draining soil. A six-inch "azalea" pot will accommodate five bulbs. Set the bulbs with their sprouting points up.

Next, plunge a bamboo stick beside each bulb. Bamboo sticks are available at any garden center, usually in 2-foot lengths. You can easily cut or break them to size. The goal, when all is finished, is to have 15 inches of bamboo exposed above the the pot's rim. To hold the sticks in place, simply firm the soil around them.

Add more soil to barely cover the bulbs, and then press gently to firm. As always, leave a one inch opening between the soil surface and the top of the pot to allow for watering. Soak the pot well, and thereafter just to maintain even moisture. The soil should never be allowed to dry out, nor should it be so saturated as to invite rot.

Full sun and cool temperatures are two conditions that encourage strong, rather than spindly growth. My pots go in the south-facing window bay in the Music Room, which does not have storm sashes. There, the bulbs enjoy nighttime temperatures between 45-60 degrees, and daytime temperatures that never exceed 65 degrees. Because these pots with bamboo sticks poking out of them are hardly attractive, I set them at each end of the broad window sill, where they are mostly hidden by curtains. Only when the flowers emerge in February do I let freesia take center stage.

Where bloom-count is concerned, freesia is generous to a fault. You can count on three to five flowering stems per bulb. Fortunately the flowering stems do not emerge all at once, but in a long, luxurious scented-sequence. When the first budded stem appears, tie it loosely to a stake. Then, about a week later, when the first crop of flowers begins to fade, cut the stem, and tie the next in line to bloom, and so on.

If you order your freesias from a bulb specialist, you will find single and double forms in a pleasant pastel palette of blue, pink, white, yellow, and red. I'm partial to 'Single Blue,' for it makes a gorgeous winter picture in my window garden in conjunction with yellow Narcissus 'Golden Dawn,' and pink rosebud impatiens.

Honestly, freesia is only slightly more difficult to force than a paperwhite narcissus. And its perfume -- an exquisite blend of honey and plum -- will make you forget all about the frozen world that lies beyond your window garden. Won't you give these tiny, teardrop-shaped bulbs a try?

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