Gardening : Freesia Lover Takes Up Lone Battle for Added Fragrance
It all began at age 12, when I spent my 25-cent allowance for a creamy white, yellow-throated freesia for my aging Aunt Eleanor. At that time, going into New York City and up to my aunt’s 20th-floor apartment was high adventure. Wafts of heady scent from my gift freesia on the windowsill filled the room, dispelled the gloom of the treeless gray, noisy city below and sealed our tryst.
Decades later, in pursuit of that freesia magic, I researched the mystery of fragrance.
Where were the fragrant freesias that suffuse a room or pervade a garden?
A scholarly article by Shirley Kerrins in the 1983 Huntington Botanical Garden September-October Calendar explained that in order to attract pollinators, flowers emit fragrance through essential oils that are oxidized and activated when the flowers open. She added: “The essential oil in a flower is produced in inverse proportion to the pigment produced. Thus, white flowers are the most fragrant.”
“A clue!” I thought, but found exceptions to the rule.
Two years of planting single white freesias, innumerable sniff tests in nurseries, florists, hotel lobby bouquets and inching, nose first, into gardens on my travels left me bereft of the sweet, sought-for smell.
What Experts Say
I prodded the experts. George Harmon Scott, Southland bulb expert and author of the explicit “Bulbs, How to Select, Grow and Enjoy” (HP Press), also experienced diminished fragrance among the newer hybrids.
Scott unsuccessfully tested Marie, a large white-flowered freesia, which to Dan David’s nose had a pronounced fragrance. But David, president of David & Royston Bulb Co., was able to finger those responsible for the missing fragrance intensity. David said that hybridizers--responding first to the cut-flower trade’s need for a stronger-stemmed, longer-lasting product and then to the public’s preference for color--had developed those qualities, not fragrance intensity, which was the target of their research.
What then was a freesia fanatic like me to do? If I could not have that special fragrance, I decided, I would opt for quality--for the time being. Joe Seals, owner of the Country Garden, responded to my belated but intrepid plea and sent 13 samples of his freesia stock for trial.
Christmas Eve 1987, I planted gift pots of each of his selections for my neighbors and presented them with holiday greetings and an invitation to join the ranks of my pursuit.
On Easter, we rendezvoused with our blooms. The surprise favorites, breaking the rule of fragrant whites, were the Tecolote-strain freesia hybrids: First came Escapade, a pleasantly scented warm red; a close second was the good, somewhat fruity scent of the lemon-yellow Fantasy. Tied for third place in order of color preference were Red Charm, Royal Gold and Tecolote White.
Color and Fragrance
For gardeners whose priority is color, other contenders such as the flame-colored Princess Marijke and Bloemfontein with gentle pinks were delightful, but our consensus was: “Give us fragrance too.”
Fortunately, freesias usually don’t sprout before they’re planted, so they can be planted late in the season.
Several local nurseries, including Burkard’s in Pasadena with 32 freesia selections, confirm ample stock, even now on New Year’s Eve. Frank Burkard Jr. winces that his supply of Ballerina, his choice fragrant freesia, is extremely low, but invites customers to test some of his new introductions. Scent or not, his Heineken has to be a favorite with my sons, who enjoy their brew.
I may have a hero. While hybridizers have piped us down the path away from primal scent, other stalwarts and I attempt a genetic about-face and return to the species: Freesia refracta, to my knowledge, does not exist in the trade. When asked, Vickie Ferriena, bulb buyer for Wayside Gardens, referred me to horticulturist Harland Hand of El Cerrito, who apparently grows a vestige of the species with a scent “that bowls them over.”Hand must also be a man of compassion; in late spring, when the corms can be lifted out of the soil, I have been promised some samples.
Joe Seal’s Country Garden selections can be obtained through his mail-order reference catalogue (50 cents). The address is Route 2, Box 455A, Crivitiz, Wis. 54114.
Wayside Gardens’ catalogue lists Marie; their address is Hodges, S.C. 29695-0001; their toll-free order number is (800) 845-1124.
White Flower Farm offers Ballerina from its catalogue ($5, applicable on purchases over $25); for telephone orders call (203) 567-0801.
