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.
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