Freesias are gorgeous and delicate exotics from the other side of the world – they grow wild in the Cape Province of South Africa – so we tend to think that growing them here will be difficult, but this simply isn't true.
If you want to grow your own look for prepared corms rather than so-called 'garden varieties'. Prepared means that the freesia bulbs (corms) have been subjected to a dormancy-breaking heat treatment – an average of 12 weeks at 30C. The idea behind this is to mimic the conditions in South Africa.
There they dry out and become dormant in the hot summer, only beginning to grow in the warm, moist autumn. They then have a cool patch in winter, which initiates flower-bud formation. These are the types of corms we sell at Sarah Raven.
