PERSPECTIVES OF SELECTION WORKS WITH FREESIA CULTURE

Abstract

In nature, the freesia genus is distributed throughout the continent of South Africa. Most species selected at the end of the 19th century played an important role in the origin of cultivated varieties and hybrids. The paper presents the history of the development of the freesia culture in the world market of cut flower products, the selection research history in world practice and in the conditions of humid subtropics of Russia in the Sochi at the Russian Research Institute of Floriculture and Subtropical Crops. Promising direction of selection research on the promising new cultivars breeding characterized by high decorative qualities and resistance to local growing conditions are analyzed: obtaining triploid cultivars; breeding potted cultivars; intervarietal, interspecific, and heterogeneous crosses using ovule culture in vitro; researches using radiation mutagenesis and other means of a physical and chemical nature; receiving seed races. The issue of incompatibility of the original parental forms of one ploidy level remains open and requires a more detailed genetic analysis.