Freesia about to bloom

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It's March 5th and here at The Tropical Paradise the freesia are just starting to bud. It doesn't look like much at first, but once it gets started, it's fireworks! I am posting this because the first time I planted freesia, I never found anything on the web but flowers in full bloom. I wanted to know, "is it supposed to look like that?"

This is what it looks like a few days before the blooms start. And this is the time to start staking. I bought some thin bamboo sticks at my local dollar store and tied the stalks with flexible gardening tape, which I carefully cut lengthwise. I wish it didn't show so much but apparently the manufacturer's idea of "green" is different from green in the real world.

The flowers grow on stalks about a foot and a half tall, and once they start blooming, they go in sequence. So it's a good idea to keep them where you can reach them easily to clean off spent blooms.

OK, now all I need is a little more time and a little warm weather and these beauties will be blooming!

Freesia blooming in sequence

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