Santa Rosa Iris Society Rebloom Update - October 2013

by Alleah Haley

(text originally appeared in The Newsletter of The Santa Rosa Iris Society, 39th year Number 10, October 2013) 

Irises are reblooming, and they’re making quite a splash! All mentioned here are tall bearded unless otherwise noted. ‘Double Shot’ (G. Sutton, 2000) was stunning in the display garden at the Luther Burbank Art and Garden Center on August 23 with two open flowers and more on the way: standards white, sanded violet blue; falls white heavily striped violet blue; beards white; slight sweet fragrance. And a Kerr TB seedling (see below) had a tall bloom stalk just showing color.

I’ve enjoyed established clumps of rebloomers in my garden. First was ‘Precious Little Pink’ (IB, Byers, 1995) with six bloomstalks: standards blue-pink; falls same, washed white; pale orange beards. Then came ‘Bonus Mama’ (Hager, 1990), a gift from Vivian Estrada several years ago: a large warm white with pale yellow in throat and on beards. It rebloomed twice, along with the old standby ‘Immortality’ (Zurbrigg, 1982). It’s pure white, including beards, and nicely ruffled. Mid to late September brought ‘Fall Rerun’ (Hager, 2001), a lightly ruffled medium blue-violet with white area around beards and 10 buds!, and SDB ‘Golden Violet’ (Weiler, 1993), golden bronze with dark violet beards. All these have sweet fragrance.

Rudy Ciuca reported that he and Joe Lawrence had two TBs in bloom at their C&L Vineyards garden in August: ‘Bonus Mama’ and ‘Betty Ford’, the Fred Kerr seedling that is scheduled for introduction in 2014 and being grown as a guest seedling for the 2014 Spring Regional. ‘Betty Ford’ has white standards and blue falls and is tall and stunning! September brought ‘Aunt Mary’ (Stanek, 2000), ‘Autumn Tryst’ (Weiler, 1993), ‘Baby Blessed’ (SDB, Zurbrigg, 1979), Bezinque Sdlg. 07-M 11, ‘Bonus Mama’ (again), ‘Bountifu lHarvest’ (Hager, 1991), ‘Coral Caper’ (MTB, Aitken, 2007), ‘Double Shot’, ‘Echo Location’ (Wilkerson, 2007), ‘Fruited Plain’ (M. Sutton, 2012), ‘Holiday InMexico’ (MTB, Probst, 2012), ‘Jennifer Rebecca’ (Zurbrigg, 1985), Kerr Sdlg. 06-039-A. ‘Pearls of Autumn’ (Hager, 1993), ‘Perpetual Indulgence’ (SDB, Aitken, 2005), 'Poignant' (SDB, G. Sutton, 2012), ‘Smell The Roses’ (SDB, Byers, 1988), ‘Sparkplug’ (SDB, Byers, 1989), ‘Summer Olympics’ (R.G. Smith, 1980). ‘Summer Pearl' (Kelway, 1963), and ‘Total Recall’ (Hager, 1992).

Juanita Breckwoldt noted that only ‘OzarkRebounder’ was in bloom in her and Bob’s garden in San Rafael in August. This TB (Nicodemus, 2003) has deep purple black standards and darker falls with a white area and purple stripes around the purple beard. Late September added ‘Autumn Wine’ (BBSA, Christopherson, 2003), a wine red with lighter rim on falls and white horn.

Marlene Freetly was enthusiastic about her rebloom. ‘Carry On’ (TB, L. Lauer, 2010) has white standards, bishop’s violet falls with white rims and white areas around orange beards, and pronounced sweet fragrance. Four stalks – two with 8 blooms/buds and one with 10! It produced another (5th!) stalk in September with 5 buds. ‘My Generation’ (TB, L. Lauer, 2009) had only one stalk but eight blooms/buds. It is white ground, lined aster violet; the falls have a white rim. Ruffled, pronounced sweet fragrance. She also rebloomed ‘Ozark Rebounder’ and ‘Royal Express’ (TB, L. Lauer, 2008), a violet purple with lighter centers and brown shoulders on falls, ruffles, lace, and pronounced sweet fragrance. September rebloom included ‘Struck Twice’ (L. Lauer, 2009), white over pink; ‘King of Light’ (Baumunk, 2007), yellow self; ‘Peggy Sue' (L. Lauer, 2006), pink; and ‘My Generation (L. Lauer, 2009), reddish purple streaks over white.

Jim Begley has a bed dedicated to rebloomers that was winding down in late September. He rebloomed ‘All Revved Up’ (Wilkerson, 2006), a red purple on cream plic.; ‘Bountiful Harvest’, a white dotted violet-purple plic.; ‘Bonus Mama’; ‘Check It Out’ (L. Lauer, 2007), yellow; ‘Double Shot’; ‘Echo Location’, pale yellow; ‘Fall Rerun’; ‘Forever Ginny’ (Schick, R. 2005), light lavender self; ‘Mariposa Autumn’ (Tasco, 1999), rosy violet on white plic.; ‘Mother Earth’ (Hager, 1988), cream S. and lavender F.; ‘Ozark Rebounder’; ‘Peggy Sue’; ‘Pure as Gold’ (Maryott, 1993), deep gold; ‘Renascent’ (Hager, 2005), light blue self; ‘Sea of Love’ (L. Lauer, 2005), light blue; ‘Speeding Again’ (L Lauer, 1998), light purple; ‘Theme Master’ (Wilkerson, 2004), dark purple; ‘Time and Again’ (Hager, 1991), white self; ‘Jane Troutman’ (Kerr, 2007), S. amber orange, F ivory edged amber orange; and ‘Carry On’. Jim’s own seedling WW-BW-5 was in full rebloom: a dark blue with wide falls and a white splash around the beards, with 20 buds! Watch for this to be introduced!

The spring (March) 2013 issue of Country Gardens magazine featured a ten-page pictorial spread “Encore! Encore!” on the Winterberry Iris Gardens of Dr. Don and Ginny Spoon in Cross Junction, Virginia. The article focused on reblooming irises and the couple’s hybridizing efforts toward these. Pictured were 24 rebloomers identified by name including the Spoons’ ‘Lady Baltimore’ and ‘My Ginny’ and Dr. Richard Richards’ ‘Easy Being Green’ which won the President’s Cup at the 2012 AIS National Convention in Ontario, California. Winterberry Gardens grows more than 1200 varieties of irises that rebloom somewhere, about 1/3 of which rebloom for them in Virginia. Their website (www.winterberryirises.com) lists 254 varieties of rebloomers for sale.

Also see “Rebloom’s Past is Its Future”, an article by Mike Lockatell of Virginia published in the April/May 2013 Irises, the Bulletin of the American Iris Society*. The author outlines the breeding history of reblooming irises, a recessive trait, starting with Jim Gibson’s ‘Gibson Girl’, through the work of Lloyd Zurbrigg, Schreiner’s ‘Victoria Falls’ (which won the Dykes Medal in 1984), the Spoons, Ghio’s 1999 ‘Double Vision’, the work of Sterling Innerst, and finally Lockatell’s own breeding work. It’s an interesting read.

*If  you’re an AIS Emember, you can read the AIS Bulletin online. See the eMembers page for more information.