Freesia

Since the end of January I have been selling these bulbs very successfully on the New Zealand Trade Me ecomerce platform.I also have a listing on the dubli.com trading platform.

I sell them in lots of 100 and mixed colours.

Sadly I can only sell them in New Zealand with export restrictions and distance from international markets.

Once sold I package the bulbs up and courier them out to their final destination.

The freesia bulb will look a picture in any garden as they are vibrant colours and really look spectacular with  close plantings. The smell alone makes then worth while and  when I have them inside my house visitors tell me how lovely it is when they walk in the door.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been watering the bulbs so that the media is just kept damp and finishing any maintenance that has been needed.

My big problem now is this watering has encourgaged the weeds to grow in the trays so I am using a herbicide to keep them under control. I usually spray weekly  and this seems to control most of the problem.

My bulbs have started sprouting but I still continue spot spraying until I have quite a few bulbs up in each tray.

The freesia roots are quite shallow so any weeds I can kill while they are little is a bonus as trying to pull them out when they are bigger is inclined to dislodge the bulbs and this I dont want to happen

I had an empty greenhouse with hydroponic capabilities, and no
funds to plant  a specalist flower crop.
A friend suggested I buy a few freesia bulbs to see how they went
as the winter here is to cold to grow them succussfully outside.
I have always loved freesias so purchased a few different colours
to fill 90 trays( around 4,000 bulbs).
They thrived in the greenhouse in our conditions with the hot
summers to get them started, and the cold winter to get them
flowering. Its the frosts they dont like.
That first year all my neighbours and friends had a houseful of
beautiful scented flowers and it gave me the enthusiam to try the
commercial scene.After the flowers had died down the bulbs were
divided and separated as much as possible into colours and this
gave me enough to fill 270 trays
This was the starting of my commercial growing venture.

I have my greenhouse divided into rows and I try to keep the colours separated as much as possible.

Planting in my area is completed by the end of January although it is best to stagnate plantings especially for supply to florists , but I find that by the end of spring the customers go for other types of flowers so I tend to cut my supply to florists at the end of October.As the bulbs don’t all grow at the same time I find I can plant all at the same time and this gives me enough over the time I want to sell them.

I plant around 60 -100 per tray depending on the size and they are planted approx 25cm deep  with the points upwards

Freesias don’t require a lot of nutrient so I provide this nutrient via the watering system as it is needed.

Once the bulbs are in the soil and covered I give them a good watering  and make sure I keep the soil damp to stimulate them to start growing .