Late Stalks: Rebloom Breeding in zone 6A

By Betty Wilkerson

Welcome to my garden.  I'm in Kentucky, zone 6.  Once again, it's been a crazy, crazy spring.  We had some really nice days during the last half of winter.  Good days to clean the iris beds and get ready for spring.  This is when it started getting crazy!  I suspect it was Mother Nature in stress mode, but maybe it was just the irises acting weird.  

Just a few days into the bloom season, it looked like a lot of the early things would not bloom!  Then, stalks started to spring up, or so it seemed, on the ones that should have bloomed earlier.  Everything was out of sequence.  However, it did make rebloom crossing easier because more flowers were blooming at the same time.  

At the end of bloom season, the inevitable depression set in.  It's generally over for another year (except for rebloom). Then I noticed extra stalks showing up. There were a couple on some of the new reblooming seedlings, and one on a slightly older seedling from rebloom breeding lines!

There's one on 'Cameo Blush,' and one on 'Over and Over.' 'Silver Dividends' also put up a stalk but with only two blooms.  (No other introduced irises bloomed at this time.)

'Cameo Blush' (Weiler by Friendship 1998)

'Over & Over' (Innerst 2003)  

Two of the seedlings from 'Tara's Choice' X 'Again & Again' put up stalks. The yellow one, 2152-02re, has cycle  rebloomed in the past and is in my older reselect bed with 2 stalks up.  2152-03 is from my previous "baby" bed and was not seen before.  It wasn't great.  No, I don't always plant all of a given cross at the same time. It depends on space and time, and what I want to see, but these were pretty and several rebloomed, so I planted all of them.


One of my disappointments has been 2527, a cross with 'All Revved Up' & X 'Lunar Whitewash.' 'All Revved Up' can bloom all summer and 'Lunar Whitewash' is a good cycle rebloomer, so I'd hoped for some type of rebloom, with good form.  I got form but none have rebloomed, yet. It was a bit surprising when some of these seedlings started putting up late stalks.

2527-05 ('All Revved Up' X 'Lunar Whitewash') 

2527-01 ('All Revved Up' X 'Lunar Whitewash)

2527-05 ('All Revved Up' x 'Lunar Whitewash')

 The latest developing stalks were 2145-01 ('Pure as Gold' X 'Summer Radiance') and 2603-04, a dark one from ('Lunar Whitewash' X Romantic Evening') X 'Over and Over.' A large group of 2145-01 crosses bloomed and were photographed in the spring, while 2603-04 did not bloom in the spring and this is my first time to see it.

2145-01 ('Pure as Gold' X 'Summer Radiance')

2603-04 (('Lunar Whitewash' x 'Romantic Evening') X 'Over and Over')

With three exceptions, all of the surprise reblooming has been on my seedlings which have at least one rebloom parent. My theory, and it's just a theory, is that I should take this as a signal that, if not rebloom, they have some type of "loosy-goosy" genes that allows later bloom.  One thing for sure, they don't put up these late stalks every year. Come to me, my favored children!

You've had another peek into the strange habits of mother nature as she works in and around Bridge In Time Iris Gardens.  For further reading about reblooming irises, visit the Reblooming Iris Society site  or subscribe to "The Recorder" through the website.

Working With Selfs-Reblooming Iris Program-Ky Zone 6

by Betty Wilkerson

Once again I've found an article to wrap around 'Summer Radiance.'  I'll never forget the first time I saw it bloom.  I was coming home from a Region 7 spring meeting.  The first stalk of what was to become 'Summer Radiance' was showing lots of bright yellow when I left for the meeting.  When I arrived back home, I dropped my suitcase on the back path and tore off down the hill to the bed by the pond.  I was thrilled with the blooms and have found more things to love about it in the 20 years since its introduction!

I was just as thrilled six weeks later when it put up a summer stalk.  That sealed its fate!  It would be with me forever! Twenty years after its introduction, I'm still using it in breeding.  I've done the research and know it does not produce plicatas.  A part of that research was growing nearly 200 seedlings from 'Summer Radiance' X 'All Revved Up.' Not a plicata in the bunch. This makes me happy, since I'm not fond of haft marks.

When breeding with pastels, this is one of my top contenders.  I can also use it when I want to inject some yellow into another line, with full understanding that I may get all kinds of rebloom, too.  I still want to turn the beard red, but I haven't decided what to use it with, yet.  'Summer Radiance' is from 'Lemon Reflection' X 'Hindenburg,' so it's only one step away from a red beard.  I would already have some results of breeding for red beards,  but I lost all of the seedlings from 2013. Maybe next spring.    

As 'Summer Radiance' grew in other climates, we discovered that it can fall or cycle bloom. It bloomed here in early July as repeat bloom.  Then, it bloomed early fall further north.  In Virginia, Mike Lockatell reports that it reblooms often and well, which is simply proof that you should never give up on a reblooming iris.  

When crossed with 'Radiant Bliss,' it gave 'Summer Honey' which can bloom from spring through fall frost. So, all told, 'Summer Radiance' is a pretty special reblooming iris.  It has probably taught me more about rebloom than any of my other seedlings.  

Hope your new year is filled with many gorgeous iris blooms.  Merry Christmas to all.  To all good iris dreams!

Some of My Best Rebloom Parents in Zone 6

by Betty Wilkerson

'Earl of Essex' has been used by many people and it has produced many rebloomers, but I'm not sure it has received all the praise it deserves. It is one of my favorite parents due to the fall form, which is round, and its willingness to pass on its rebloom genes.  On the negative side it is a cycle rebloomer, it is short, and it is a plicata.  Those are drawbacks because I work with summer rebloomers, prefer tall seedlings, and dislike the messy hafts that come along when crossing plicatas and selfs.  I've been told that the messy hafts come along with the plicata breeding since they have not been removed from the plicata gene set, and although these genes are not specifically a part of the plicata gene, they ride along with it.  

'Earl of Essex' (Zurbrigg 1979)

Common sense tells me that the shorter plant should be used as the pollen parent with the taller plant being the pod parent, but this is not possible when you don't grow both plants. Sometimes we get pollen from other growers, you see.  A friend donated pollen from 'Hot Streak' (Ghio 1999) and I crossed it to 'Earl of Essex', and 'Radiant Bliss' was the result.  I'm extremely glad I didn't follow common sense!

'Radiant Bliss' (Wilkerson 2004)

Once I moved to Mitchell Weaver Road, and established a short row of 'Radiant Bliss', I looked for a rebloom partner.  'Summer Radiance' stood tall and proud just a few plants over.  Both plants are tall, so it wouldn't matter which was taller, but 'Summer Radiance' rarely sets pods so I used it as pollen parent.

'Summer Radiance' (Wilkerson 1996)

There were several seedlings from the cross that rebloomed, and although some were red, the best one I named 'Summer Honey.'  In 2011 it managed to bloom from spring through fall freeze.  It was a nice, relatively moderate summer, and I did water every ten days or so when there was no rain.  I received a letter with pictures of it reblooming in Oregon in 2014.  It was gorgeous.

'Summer Honey' (Wilkerson 2013) 

Below is a picture of the stalks that were cut down in the fall freeze of 2011. Five stalks growing from one rhizome.

'Summer Honey' stalks (fall)

'Radiant Bliss' was crossed onto 'Innocent Star,' resulting in five rebloomers. 'All Revved Up' is one of these rebloomers.  It passes rebloom on to many of it children.

'All Revved Up' (Wilkerson 2006)

'Rebound' (Wilkerson 96) was used on 'Innocent Star' and produced 'Echo Location' and four other rebloomers.  Below is a picture, showing the netting beside the beard, that I understand indicates it is a plicata.  'All Revved Up' and 'Echo Location' share 75% of their genes.

'Echo Location' (Wilkerson 2007)

'Echo Location' (netting is proof of plicata genes)

'Echo Location' was crossed onto 'Again and Again.'  There were three rebloomers, but 2130-01Re is the only seedling I kept from this cross.  It's not as pretty as I thought it was in maiden bloom.  It was a solid purple self in maiden bloom, but this is what it looks like now.

'Again and Again' (Innerst 1999)

2130-01Re (Wilkerson seedling)

I've crossed 'Over and Over' onto this seedling.  Many have been planted and some may bloom this spring.  Stay tuned for an update on the seedlings.

Dominance and Patterns in a Reblooming Iris Cross

By Betty Wilkerson

Most of you know that I’m not an expert on iris genes. I’m going to take you down my garden path so you can see some of my seedlings. The plicata pattern has never been my favorite. I didn’t have a lot of options in the beginning, or when the irises, and I, moved to Allen County during the fall of 2003. 

In the spring of 2004, a couple of the brightest blooms were ‘Radiant Bliss’ and ‘Summer Radiance.’  This was not a cross I’d planned, but it did make sense.  ‘Radiant Bliss’ is a tall, well branched rebloomer and tall, well branched iris make the best pod parents.  It's a fall cycle rebloomer.   ‘Summer Radiance’ had refused to set pods and was being used as a pollen parent.  'Summer Radiance' is without plicata in its geneology and it reblooms in July and then in the fall.  

Genetically speaking, solid color selfs are dominant over plicata.  What does this mean to people that have never made a cross?  When using a self, in this case 'Summer Radiance,' that has no plicata in the parentage, none of the children will be plicata.  The children will be a mixture of variegatas, bitones, bi-colors, and blends, with possible overlay or apron patterns.  Many will have lots of haft lines & murky colors.  

'Radiant Bliss' (Wilkerson 2005)
Pod Parent

'Summer Radiance' (Wilkerson 1996)
Pollen Parent

In a cross like this, many seedlings will be some version of a solid color.  Some will have haft lines, like the ones in these pictures.  Some colors will be clear, while others are murky.

(1814-01re)

(1814-03)

(1814-05)

More exciting, for me, would be the variegatas.  I had hopes one of these would rebloom, but no such luck.

(1814-06)

There were several red seedlings.  One (not this one) did try to rebloom, but really late.  I saw it as winter bloom. Haft lines were bad on the red ones.

(1814-08)

'Summer Honey' (Wilkerson 2013)

In the end, 'Summer Honey' (#1814-02re) was the star of the crop.  She fall bloomed for several years.  During the summer of 2011, after a lineout planting the year before, 'Summer Honey' bloomed each day from spring bloom until the first fall freeze!  It was a good sized planting, but still nice to have bloom all summer.  Could a good sized planting be the solution to continuous bloom?