Mystery Plant

These are starting to bud.  These are bulbs.  These are a mystery.  My brother gave me these bulbs a few years ago.  I smashed the entire lot of them in a shallow pot.  They sprouted lots of long, slender, green leaves; but they never bloomed.  The bulbs look as if they are covered with hair.  Kind of like cocoanuts.  (Sorry, I don’t have a photos of the bulbs.) I wanted to use the pot for something else so I pulled the bulbs out and tossed them in the holes of the cinder blocks that form the raised vegetable beds.  The familiar green leaves began to sprout reminding me that those forgotten bulbs needed to be dealt with.  I procrastinated and now the bulbs are starting to bloom.  What do you know?  These may be great flowers to attract hummingbirds and bees into the garden. Now, I’m searching to figure out what, exactly, these bulbs are.  I hope to post photos of the flowers when they open.

Note:  The brick wall in the background has a common bond pattern; but in the photos it takes on a vertical weave look.  Strange.

Answer:  Freesia. 

My brother confirmed the identification of the mystery plant.

Helen B. and Maureen,  thanks for helping with the identification.  Email me your contact information and I’ll send you a coveted packet of heirloom tomato seeds (Arkansas Traveler from Baker Creek).

Here’s what the corms look like.  Kind of like hairy cocoanuts.

The blooms began to open on March 10, 2010.  The colors seem to range from deep red to yellow.  Note how great the lobelia looks in the background.  The growth habit of freesia remind me of pan flutes.