Freesia is one of the most popular flowers over the world including Korea, due to the fragrance and beauty of the plant flower. The first domestic freesia cultivar ‘Shiny Gold’ was developed by NIHHS, RDA, in 2003, which has yellow double and large petals and strong fragrance. Ten years have passed since ‘Shiny Gold’ was cultivated at floral farms, and the deterioration of cut flower quality and yield are reported from the farms. Virus infection causes a reduction in the quantity and quality of the cut freesia flowers and is one of the most serious problems in Korea. Virus detection was carried by reverse transcription polymer chain reaction (RT-PCR) for FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, CMV, and TRV, as known to infect freesia. FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, and TRV were detected single or multiply, and CMV was not found in the freesia leaves collected from the farms. To produce virus-free freesia, meristem culture of ‘Shiny Gold’ was conducted in MS medium added ribavirin at different concentration. As the increased of ribavirin concentration, the growth of ‘Shiny Gold’ plantlets was inhibited in freesia’Shiny Gold’. The plantlets produced by meristem culture in ‘Shiny Gold’ were virus free at the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) level.

A freesia (Freesia hybrida Hort.) ‘Cutie Red’ was developed for the pot flower in the National Institute of Horticultural Herbal Science in 2014. This hybrid was crossed and selected from a seedling of three-way crossing the seedling of ‘Volcano’ and ‘Sailor’ with ‘Figaro’, and ‘Suzy’ in 2006 and 2010, respectively. Morphological characteristics of the selected freesia hybrid were investigated for 3 years from 2011 to 2013, and then it was named ‘Cutie Red’ in 2014. ‘Cutie Red’ has single and red petals (RHS, R45A) with yellow-orange color of center (RHS, YO21B). The average flower width is 5.3 cm and the average yield is 4. The growth of the plant is vigorous and the average height is 70.3 cm, and it is shorter than about 15.4 cm that of control cultivar ‘Red Race’. The average number of floret per stalk and stalk length, 10.7, and the stalk was 9.6 cm length, shorter than ‘Red Lace’, 13 and 11.7 cm length, respectively. The first flowering, in avarage, of ‘Cutie Red’ takes about 141 days, and it’s average vase life and yield is 9.7 days and 5 cormlets per plant, respectively.

A freesia (Freesia hybrida Hort.) ‘Song of Angel’ was developed for the cut flower in the National Institute of Horticultural Herbal Science in 2013. This hybrid was crossed and selected from a seedling of three-way crossing ‘Golden Flame’ and the seedling of ‘Athene’ and ‘Yvonne’ in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Morphological characteristics of the selected freesia hybrid were investigated for 5 years from 2008 to 2012, and then it was named ‘Song of Angel’ in 2013. ‘Song of Angel’ has single flower and yellow petals (RHS, YG13B) with yellow center color (RHS, YG13A). The average flower width is 5.8 cm and the average yield is 4.3. The growth of the plant shows vigorous and the average height is 95.3cm, and it is higher than about 30cm that of control cultivar ‘Yvonne’. The average number of floret per stalk and stalk length, 14.3, and stalk was 11.1 cm length is higher than the ‘Yvonne’, 9.7 and 8.3cm length, respectively. The average days to first flowering of ‘Song of Angel’, 141 days, was approximately 10 days earlier than the control cultivar. It’s average vase life and yield is 10.7 days and 6.2 cormlets per plant, respectively.