Freesia (Anomatheca Group)

A Plant Collectors Guide

I first discovered these plants about ten years ago and just shortly after I started
collecting Crocosmia. Over the next couple of years I obtained six plants, these were Freesia laxa, Freesia laxa ssp. azurea, Freesia laxa 'Alba, Freesia laxa 'Joan Evans', Freesia viridis and Freesia grandiflora; all of which, with the exception of Freesia grandiflora were what I thought were winter rainfall species in South Africa.
However this was far from true and I later discovered that Freesia laxa comes from both winter and summer rainfall areas.

Originally all the laxa types were grown under cover as winter rainfall species, and here all flowered during Chelsea Week with the exception of F. l. ssp. azurea which flowers a little earlier. I discovered their suitability as summer flowering bulbs on sowing a little seed in the middle of January one year, as this is the time I usually start sowing all sorts of bulb seed. Rather amazingly to me at that time, I discovered they only took six months from sowing to flowering. This intrigued me so I decided to look at them in a little more detail as it was obvious that they had far more horticultural value than I first thought.

On researching them more I discovered that they were very closely related to another genus I was collecting and researching, that of Crocosmia. One question stuck in my mind for ages, "Could Freesia laxa be used to discover how and why so many different Crocosmia hybrids were bred in such a short space of time"?

Victor Lemoine of Nancy, France was responsible for breeding the Common Montbretia, Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora around 1879, a cross between Crocosmia aurea and Crocosmia pottsii. Then called Montbretia, Lemoine went on to breed a further 55 hybrids until 1908, although most were bred before 1900.

Anomatheca would make a good study as this group had not really been hybridised before and the only problem I would have if I was to compare Anomatheca breeding to Crocosmia breeding, was in making an inter-specific hybrid, or in "finding one". I've always thought myself a lucky person and whilst crossing F. grandiflora with F. laxa I also decided to attempt a cross of F. laxa ssp. azurea with a plant I had as Lapeirousia 'Naticoke'. The former never produced any seed at all, but the latter did. I then had to find out more about Lapeirousia 'Naticoke', 'Naticoke' came to me from the Reed's Garden in East Devon, UK; the only information passed to me at that time was that it was an American hybrid. I have never since found out any more information about this hybrid, even on joining the IBS several years ago. However I am now nearly 100% certain that 'Naticoke' is indeed Freesia laxa x Freesia grandiflora, and because of the expected behaviour of its progeny in breeding.

The first cross between F. laxa ssp. azurea and 'Naticoke' gave rise to to a very distinct hybrid. F. 'Plum Scrumptious', named for its very deep plum coloured central markings, but the most recognisable feature of this plant is that the ground colour is white but becomes suffused with pink and lilac towards the end of its segments.

My first attempt at Anomatheca breeding was in crossing F. laxa with F. l. 'Alba', and to try and achieve a pure pink, as one would expect to get a pink by crossing a red flower with a white one. The normal colour of the progeny of this cross are white with red central markings, in the UK these are represented by the form F. l. 'Joan Evans'. However one percent of this cross did turn out pink and one of these was selected and grown on and later named F. l. 'Sunset Boulevard', and this hybrid was subsequently used in crossings with 'Plum Scrumptious', and has recently produced a uniformly coloured lilac laxa type hybrid, which I have named 'East of Eden'.

The latest hybrid of merit to be selected is F. 'Shelly', and this came as quite a shock as it arose after selfing 'East of Eden', a shock for I have found F. laxa hybrids usually come true from seed if selfed. Thus different rules do apply after an interspecific has been produced and backcrosses are thus more likely to vary, and this was the information I was looking for regarding early Crocosmia production and the reason why so many were produced in such a short space of time.