PlantFiles: False Freesia
Anomatheca laxa

Easy to grow, naturalizes in my climate. Is one of the first things to bloom in late winter.

This plant will spread to cover a fairly large area within a few years. The tiny rhizomes (Iris Family) would be great to plant under sod when installing a new lawn (or rebuilding an old lawn). They will flower for about a month in early spring and will disappear with browning leaves before the grass needs to be mowed.

Mine were grown from seed this year and they are blooming right now. I am still shocked. This bulb—if grown from seed—will bloom in its first year. Hurray!

I could comment under each entry for this little treasure of a plant. [See my comments under Anomatheca laxa Joan Evans.] The more pasty reddish form mentioned here is less common in my garden but I have mostly a salmon-pink red. There are also white and pale pink so far are much less common and a blue which is really wonderful! All re-seed quite readily. They are a zero maintenance plant...well at least as close as one can get!

All-in-all this is a remarkably amiable plant in San Diego gardens. It is never a nuisance yet pops up in some of the most surprising places! The flower color may be variable but the flower size is the same... however the larger the plant the more flowers and branches on each flower scape. Blooming plants range from a few inches to nearly 2 ft.!! It is extremely adaptable to many garden conditions. I cannot see my garden as ever being without it!!!

I love this plant! I was given a corm by my mother 3 yrs ago, and this year I had 2 babies, about 6-8" away from the 'mother' plant. They all bloomed, and bore seed. The original corm was from the coastal area of Oregon. My location is inland So. Oregon.

It's small, and is quite lovely in my 'shady woodland area' on the south side of the house, next to my Trillium.

We don't get ground freezing here very often, and whenever it gets close to that temp., I put down some leaves, straw, or whatever I have handy, in the 'shady areas'.

All of the Freesia laxa species and hybrids are unique and beautiful rarely grown spring blooming bulbs native to Africa; but are easily naturalized in southern gardens. Freesia laxa species has been in cultivation for 200 years, but is rarely seen in commerce today although is an extremely reliable tiny naturalized bulb in southern gardens. It blooms in February through March on 12” stalks going completely dormant by early summer in southeast Texas. It seems to not be bothered by moisture during its dormancy and provides a welcome respite from winter blandness. This underused little beauty is a rapid reproducer and is undergoing a resurgence in popularity due to its easygoing cultural requirements and myriad of hybridizing possibilities.

a very easy to grow-from-seed plant, which yields from the first year several big and healthy seeds for further use - it has a very unusual pink-red colour, and thrives in zone 10B if some shade is provided. As the summer settles in, the leaves quickly dry up and it does not look good anymore, but for some color in springtime it is superb. Keep in mind that it is a very low plant (15cm, 6").

After planting these last year in partial or filtered shade, I am happy to report that they are up and blooming right now. They self-seeded and appear to have produced new bulbs around the mother bulbs as well. The bloom stalks have 6 to 10 blooms per stalk and althougt the blooms are small, they really standout due to the color. I am delighted with this plant whose leaves are somehat grassy looking. I plan to buy more if I can find them and plant them in several more locations. It is difficult to find spring bulbs that return and bloom as well as naturalize without chilling in my area of Texas. After blooming and the seeds have matured (which they have done here already), the foliage disappears.

In my Zone, they come back up in very early spring (I think they appeared in late February and started blooming in the middle of March). From what I have found while researching whether they are frost tender, hard frosts can damage the foliage at this time, but more leaves come up when the weather warms. They are supposed to be hardy as long as the soil does not freeze. We have not had a hard freeze when they are up since I have had them so I am not speaking from personal experience.

Added note: They have produced seeds which are very easy to collect. For the size of the plant, they are fairly large. They should be sown in the spot you want them to grow and very lighty covered with soil. The ones that self-seeded bloomed this first year.