Ann Linda and Margie V.,
Thanks guys! I’m pretty amazed myself. I’m still getting used to the idea of having irises actually rebloom at all [for me]. And now I’ve got one that seems like it wants to bloom all summer. Sure it’s only a couple of stalks here and there, but it’s feeding my visions of future irises that really will bloom all summer. As long as we can get enough increases to keep forming, why shouldn’t they be able to!
And yes Linda, that’s right… ‘Cricket Song’ and it’s sister ‘Easy Smile’ were two of my earliest bloomers this year. They started at the very end of April, just a little bit after the bearded species ‘Varda Gorge’, which is always my earliest. I remember because I tried some mixed ploidy crosses with ‘Varda Gorge’ hoping to generate some really novel material for infusion into the tetraploid rebloomer gene pool. Unfortunately, I had no success there.
As for fragrance, unfortunately it’s only mild and isn’t the sweet pallida type. Maybe it’s good that it’s not too strong, because it’s reminiscent of celery to me.
And Margie, those fat pods you noticed are from the first stalks of the repeat flush and are from Iris rudskyi pollen. I wish now that I’d done more intentional crosses on it during the main season. I did do some test crosses with Iris tectorum which seem to have generated some seeds. My experience has been that Iris tectorum crosses rarely set seeds on beardeds. But Iris cengialtii seems to be more cooperative than others. So I figured that since ‘Cricket Song’ is half cengialtii, it might also be more willing to accept tectorum pollen. I hate to count chickens before they hatch, but it looks like that is the case.
And by the way, I went out to check that unopened stalk and just found yet another new stalk coming up. CRAZY!!! I’m sure I’ll have to post more pictures as it finishes up in July.
Thanks again guys for sharing in my excitement.
Tom
Wow, it's amazing this is still going! And look at the size of those pods!
Ann
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That's pretty amazing, Tom. I checked to see when you posted the first
photo of bloom this year - May 4.
Is it fragrant? Reminds me of a short pallida.
Linda Mann
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That is remarkable!! You've done good work, Thomas. It's easy to see why you've used it to cross with.
Margie V.
