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Freesia refracta seeds grow into the wild freesia a cormous geophyte native to the subtropical biome of the south-western Cape Province of South Africa. Originally described as Gladiolus refractus by Jacquin (Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, 17271817, the great Viennese court botanist) and transferred to Freesia by Klatt. The epithet refracta means ‘bent back’ or ‘refracted’, referring to the characteristic angle between the flower stem and the spike the stem bends sharply so that the flower spike is held horizontally. One of the principal wild ancestral species from which the modern Freesia cut-flower hybrids were developed through 19th- and 20th-century breeding programmes. Produces creamy-yellow to pale yellow flowers with an extraordinary sweet fragrance among the most sweetly scented flowers of any Cape bulb. The genus Freesia was named by Ecklon after Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (17951876), a German physician. Family Iridaceae.

Full sun; well-drained sandy or rocky Cape soils; dry summer dormancy; cool to warm subtropical Mediterranean Cape conditions.

• ‘Refracta’ = bent back; characteristic sharp angle between stem and spike holds flowers horizontally
• Originally Gladiolus refractus Jacq. (17271817); transferred by Klatt; creamy-yellow fragrant flowers
• SW. Cape Prov. subtropical biome; wild ancestor of modern Freesia cut-flower hybrids
• One of the sweetest-scented Cape bulbs; Ecklon named genus after German physician F.H.T. Freese
• Full sun; well-drained Cape soils; dry summer; Mediterranean subtropical; Family Iridaceae

Freesia refracta is the wild freesia the Cape species whose extraordinary sweet fragrance provided the genetic and olfactory foundation for the entire modern Freesia cut-flower industry, a creamy-yellow cormous geophyte of the south-western Cape fynbos and one of the most sweetly scented of all South African bulbs.

IMPORTANT: Pictures show the adult plant, which is not for sale. The offer is only for seeds.