Staking freesia in bloom, Phoenix, Arizona

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When freesia start to bloom, it's quite a show. But they are incredibly top-heavy. I discovered that last year when I planted these and watched the blooms tip over. This year I started staking early with little bamboo sticks from the dollar store.

It looks like I will have to go back to the dollar store! There are a lot more blooms on the way, and the stakes are already showing the strain. You can see the one in the foreground really curving under the weight! I don't want to use any thicker stakes, so I will just add more. I like how the bamboo stakes really don't show much, but I'm not crazy about the "green" that the flexible plant tie manufacturer chose. But it's important to use this type of flexible tie, you want the stalk to be firmly tied, but you don't want the flowers to be "decapitated".

March 23, 2013

These flowers came from Easy to Grow Bulbs, by the way. Nah, they don't pay me to say anything, but they grow the kind of huge bulbs that produce the kinds of flowers that you just can't get at your local Home Depot.


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