NEW CULTIVARS OF FREESIA REFRACTA PRODUCED IN SOCHI

Foreign cultivars of Freesia refracta have been studied and introduced on the Black Sea coast for more than 45 years; cultivation technology applicable to this growing area has been developed. Breeding studies of freesia were started in 1984 and are still being carried out in order to create new cultivars more adapted to the local growing conditions. Every year, the collection is updated with new promising cultivars bred by FRC SSC RAS. Over the past 5 years, freesia collection has been supplemented with seven cultivars ‘Breeze’, ‘Melange’, ‘Angel’, ‘Palmira’, ‘Ritsa’, ‘Svetlana’ and ‘Tatiana’, which were bred in Sochi and included in the Register of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation. In 2019, the hybrid form U-52-2 (‘Zoloto Ampsalidy’) was sent to the State Cultivar Commission of the Russian Federation and is being tested.