Early Fall Rebloom in Kentucky, Zone 6

by Betty Wilkerson

Around September 1, 'Gate of Heaven' opened it's first beautiful bloom.  It has great form for an iris that reblooms in Kentucky.  I've tried using it in breeding, but so far none of the crosses took.  I dug a portion of it and transplanted to another position in the garden in hopes it will produce good pollen or at least take a good pod.  There are some California rebloomers that match this form, but none rebloom, on their own, here in Kentucky.    

'Gate of Heaven' (Zurbrigg by Friendship 2004) 

Two of my seedlings have bloomed nearly all summer.  This is the first time 1605-02 Re has bloomed during the summer, as it usually only blooms in the fall.  ((Victoria Falls x Vanity) x Love Lines) x (Champagne Elegance x Feed Back) is the break down for 1605-02Re.

1605-02Re (Wilkerson seedling) 

1907-10Re, a lavender self with a darker fall overlay, is a sibling to 'Cool Character.' Their parents are 'Blatant' x 'All Revved up.'  I've posted this one several times.  It is a prolific rebloomer, but I've not been able to get any takes as either pod or pollen parent.  As iris breeders often state, "there is always next year!"

1907-10Re (Wilkerson seedling) 

This summer I've had rebloom stalks on a couple of west coast irises.  'Carousel of Dreams' was among a group of irises reported to be reblooming in Joe Ghio's garden in early summer.  I ordered five or six and this iris was one of the group.  It started putting up a stalk almost immediately.

'Carousel of Dreams' (Gerald Richardson 2014)

The other iris from the west coast is 09-75C, a seedling belonging to Keith Keppel.  It's from 'Adriatic Waves' x 'Noble Gesture,' one of my favorite introductions of Keith's. Both of these had already set stalks on the west coast, and with a little water and fertilizer the stalks popped right up! These would need an especially long cool summer to set and produce rebloom stalks and this is rare. The year 2006, with it's six week long spring and mild summer, is the only time I recall a large number of sporatic rebloomers in my garden.  

09-75C (Keppel seedling)  

Then along came a couple of brand new seedlings.  This first one may or may not be 2611-04Re.  It grew and bloomed right at the edge of the clump and may have been from the clump next to it.  When I checked it out, it really looks like it's on the edge of 2611-04Re. Somehow, I'm not really buying it, but I will line both out and see what I have once they both bloom again.  'Star Gate's' beard looks even prettier on this one!  Love this one!

2611 (Wilkerson seedling) 

This is 2612-03Re ('Again and Again' x 'Echo Location') X 'Over and Over.'  I must admit it is starting to grow on me.  The first bloom was rather weather beaten and the standards were open, but this bloom shot was taken later and I really like it.  There is a second stalk that is starting to show color now.

2612-03Re (Wilkerson seedling) 

The always present, ' Over and Over' managed to put up stalks on all three of the new clumps.  Two clumps put up two stalks each.  One was planted, bare roots, last fall and it bloomed earlier in the summer, but the other two clumps, planted this spring, still with bare roots, are blooming October 1.

'Over and Over' (Innerst 2001)

Its been a good iris year here with lots of rebloom, and I hope you've had a nice reblooming summer and fall.  Let us know what rebloomed for you in 2016.  Make a few rebloom crosses next spring and see what you get.  If you cross two things that summer bloom for you, there is a good chance you will get some seedlings that summer rebloom, also.  Two fall or cycle rebloomers will usually give fall or cycle rebloomers.  Enjoy!

Breeding Reblooming Irises: An Eye to the Future-1

by Betty Wilkerson

Zone 6, KY

Crosses in 2013

My labor of love is to create unique reblooming irises for cold climates, but nothing is reblooming in my garden right now, so I thought I'd take you into the reblooming fantasy garden of my mind.  How can I do that?  By showing you irises I have hybridized that have reblooming genes that I intend to cross again to get reblooming irises in a wider variety of colors.  

A few years ago, Australian hybridizer Barry Blyth recommended that hybridizers take pictures of the parent flowers as they make crosses.  Such a brilliant idea that I should have thought of it myself! (insert smiley face)  So now I carry a digital camera in my hybridizing bag, along with notebook, pen and hybridizing tags. The trick is to remember to take the pictures when I make the cross!  So the photos below are my field pictures, part of the documentation of the painstaking and lenghty hybridizing process of producing better flowers for your garden.

People say they are tired of the "default" rebloom colors of yellow, white, and purple.  These are basically the result of dominant genes.  Other colors and some patterns require the use of recessive genes.  Over the past ten years, I've worked to fold in patterns and colors that did not exist in older cold climate rebloomers.  Recessive genes are required for the tangerine factor.  This is how we get pink, orange, yellow with a red beard or white with a red beard.  Certain patterns, like the Emma Cook pattern, are recessive.  Plicata is even recessive to selfs or single colored irises.  For the past ten years I've been working hard to fold these recessives into my seedlings.

This year, I'm crossing back for rebloom.  It's going to be difficult since the summer rebloom genes appear to be among the most rare!  I've crossed my reblooming irises and seedlings (irises that have not been registered or introduced) onto each other, and to a few seedlings with half rebloom genes that refuse to rebloom for me, in an attempt to achieve this goal.  

One such cross is, well, YELLOW.   Although I'm not crazy about all yellow irises, I'm fond of most of these 'Summer Radiance' children, due to their improved form and  their intense colors.  This 2013 cross will be used to get a nicely formed and vivid rebloomer.

                                                                       

1802-01P (Wilkerson Seedling) 

2151-01 Wilkerson Seedling

Once again, 'Summer Radiance' was outstanding, and its pollen was very fertile and it took on several things.  From the rebloom perspective, there is a lot of potential in these new seed pods!  

'Summer Radiance' clump (Wilkerson 1996)  

I have a number of seedlings I call "The Kitchen Sink Kids" because they have so many different genes in them that come from a reblooming iris numbered 1810.  ( 1605-01:9415-1Re((('Victoria Falls' x 'Vanity') x 'Immortality') x ('Latest Style' x 'Glistening Icicle'))) x ('Feedback' x 'Champagne Elegance') X 'Light Rebuff.' for those of you who must know.)   It seemed like a good idea to hit them with a bunch of rebloomers.  There were several good takes on 1810-15Re below,  the best rebloomer, and one take on 1810-01Re.  There were over twenty rebloomers, some summer and some fall,  from this cross.  Sadly, none met my requirements for introduction.  Here are two of the parents from 1810 I am using to get better form and color in rebloom.

1810-15Re (Wilkerson Seedling) 

                                                                  

1810-01Re (Wilkerson Seedling)  

Pollen from ‘Summer Radiance,’ a known parent of rebloomers, took on 1810-01Re.   I have several more to share with you on my next post, so stay tuned!  

I'm finding 'Renown' to be a good parent for plant qualities, but unfortunately, none of its children have rebloomed.  Pollen from seedling #2310-02 ('Decadence' X 'Renown,') ‘About Tomorrow,’ and ‘Returning Chameleon’ took on 1810-15re, which is exciting, because 1810-15-re often blooms all summer and into fall.  'About Tomorrow' is from 'Treasured' x 'Renown' and gives beautiful and diverse children.  I just can't wait to see these babies.  

                                                                 

2310-02 (Wilkerson Seedling) 

                                                                   

'About Tomorrow' (Wilkerson 2013)

  

'About Tomorrow' Top View (Wilkerson 2013) 

                                                                       

'Returning Chameleon' (Wilkerson 1995) 

Even though it was a bad year for hybridizing,  I was able to get a dozen good reblooming crosses for the future.  For the next step, I stripped blooms from the large plantings of my strongest rebloomers, 'Returning Chameleon', 'Summer Radiance,' 'Echo Location,' 'All Revved Up' and 'Star Gate' and carried them from bed to bed looking for good mates.  More about these later!

I also used a number of seedlings that are rebloomers, but haven’t met my criteria for introduction.   But hope springs eternal in the world of reblooming iris creation.  Wish me luck! 

Do you have any questions about how your lovely rebloomers are created?  Leave your questions and comments below and I will do my best to answer.

After the Meltdown

Rebloomers tend to be among the first tall bearded irises to bloom in the spring, and they often color the garden for a week before the oncers begin blooming.  In early April, 'Tara's Choice' and several other rebloomers were looking great.  Unfortunately, I knew it was way too early for them to be safe in my Kentucky, zone 6, garden.  

'Tara's Choice' (Wilkerson 2004)

As I finished my last AIS blog entry, the garden was hit by a heavy frost extending over three consecutive nights.  Many of my seedlings were in full bloom and I'd begun making crosses for the 2012 year.  They turned out to be busy work.  The immediate concern was damage.  What was damaged and how bad was it?  

Frost damaged stalk

It was bad.  All stalks were cut down by the frosts.  Most of the bloom was gone for the season, but a small number of irises put up new stalks.  Some of the newer seedlings managed to open a bloom here and there.  Although nothing could be evaluated due to damaged blooms, it was nice to see the colors.  Who would have expected 'Born to Exceed' X 'Renown' (blue bi-tone and white) to produce a yellow seedling?  I'd hoped to expand my photo collection, but unfortunately, I was not able to take many pictures. This blog will be handicapped or limited to existing photos until I have another good bloom season.

There were no pods in the tall bearded section for 2012.  About twenty crosses had been made when the frost hit and none survived.  Another ten crosses were made post frost and none of these took. Recently germinated seedlings were frost bit but few were killed, fortunately.

Since the spring bloom was three weeks early, so it should be no surprise that rebloom also started earlier this year.  'Pinkness' (Byers 89) tried to spring bloom, was damaged. and it was the first introduced iris to put up a new stalk, followed by 'Gate of Heaven' (Zurbrigg 2004) and 'Artistic Showoff' (Wilkerson 2011.)  This is early for my garden, but there are reports of early rebloom in many parts of the US of A.

'Pinkness' (Byers 1989)

'Gate of Heaven' (Zurbrigg 2004) (Yum!)

'Artistic Showoff' (Wilkerson 2011)

Even before these three irises bloomed, two of my summer blooming seedlings gave a show.  Both 2025-02Re and 2130-01Re have bloomed in July but started rebloom in June this year. Both have been used in breeding. 

2025-02Re Wilkerson seedling (Total Recall x 1625-01Re (Star Gate x  (Violet Returns x Breakers) 

2131-01Re Wilkerson seedling (Again & Again X Echo Location) 

I also have a couple of seedlings with stalks showing color.  They won't open by June 25, but I'll give you a little peek at what I'll see in a few days!  2102-04Re has been a favored seedling since it was transplanted from the seedling pot back in the fall of 2007.  At that point, I was impressed with its great root system, and I fully expected it to rebloom.  My enthusiasm gradually diminished as I watched it set bloom stalks each spring, right after bloom season, and waited (impatiently) for signs of a fall stalk.  Each year it sat and waited for spring to send up the stalks.  In 2010 I moved a piece of it to the new beds.  The clump opened three stalks post-frost season this spring.  Last week I was thrilled when I finally spotted a rebloom stalk.  I was shocked because I'd given up.  More about this one in a later blog.  It has great breeding potential.

2102-04Re Wilkerson seedling (Star Gate x (Bridge In Time x (Feed Back x Titan's Glory) X Arctic Fox

1907-10Re Wilkerson seedling (Blatant X All Revved Up) 

1907-10Re bloomed all summer in 2011, had spring stalks, and it has another stalk ready to show color now.  This shows potential for a good 2012 rebloom season.  I hope to have a lot to report in August.  At least I can dream.

Much of the country had an early bloom season in the spring.  Did any of your irises get hit by frost?  Have any of your reblooming irises sent up new stalks already this summer?