Freesia Puzzle

[Hillwalker]

I don't grow many flowers, but this year decided to plant a lot (c.120) of my wife's favourite, Freesia. I planted the bulbs in early april, in 5" pots - 4 to a pot. The intention was to get them growing until I'd dug a new flower border.

2 months on and I'm ready to transplant. However, only 10 plants have emerged. Thinking the rest had died I started emptying them into a trug to reclaim the compost. Although they haven't emerged, virtually all the remaining disclosed bulbs have produced a lovely, healthy, large new bulb on top of the original. The trouble is nearly all of them have no roots. So I don't know what to do with them. Do I replant them, hoping for some miracle? Or, do I bury them all in a large container, to be dried off later in the year?

I've grown Freesias before, albeit not as many and I know they don't overwinter well here. I've certainly never had any reappear the following year.

[Jeanied]

I would replant them and protect them over winter - they have to be specially treated to flower in summer from a spring planting.

[Hillwalker]

Thanks for your reply Jeanie. The curious thing is, when I tipped the pots upside down three weeks ago there were roots showing at the base. Now, nothing. Yet the bulbs look perfectly healthy.

Out of curiosity, where do you get the specially treated bulbs from? The only Freesia bulbs I've come across are pretty ubiquitous, with instructions for spring planting for summer flowering.