Re: rebloom

From: "Walter A. Moores" <wam2@Ra.MsState.Edu>



On Wed, 26 Aug 1998, Mike Sutton wrote:

> OH, OH, OH, OH, OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> The absolute best rebloomer seedling bloomed!  Pictures aren't back yet but
I'll try to describe it.  17 buds 4 branches a spur and a terminal, some triple
socketed.  (high bud count is not unusual in the hot summer months)  35" tall
Light smoky lavender standards with a darker edge, dark (I can't quite describe
the color) smoked gun metal with a pronounced 1/4 inch band the same color as
the standards.  Get this fiery orange tangerine bushy (but not too bushy)
beards.  Wide overlapping falls, highly ruffled (evenly ruffled) with 7 1/2"
flowers.  What a wonderful bright spot during digging season, it makes it all
worth it!!  We will have to see how it does in spring but at the moment it is a
shoe-in for introduction.
> Mike
> 
> 
	Mike, I share your enthusiasm, but I think a word or two of
caution might be in order.  In the following I don't intend to throw water
on your iris fire.

	Over the years I have seen maiden bloom that really excited me
only to be disappointed with later bloom.  And, I have also seen the
reverse, as surely you may have.

	With maiden bloom in several seedlings of mine, it seemed the
plant put all of its gusto in that first bloom.  Since your seedling did
not bloom in the spring, that bud (now in bloom) may have been in the
formation stages for a long time, giving the flower the fantastic form you
are viewing.  Most often this happens in the fall on rebloom when colder
nights hold back a bud.  When it finally blooms, it is huge, overlapping,
but is atypical on subsequent bloom when conditions are right.

	A case in point is the seedling 91-14-ARE on my web site.  That
picture was taken on maiden bloom in the fall, and the bloom has never
been so gorgeous since.  If you saw 91-14-ARE in bloom in the spring, you
would never say that what you are seeing is the same iris I have on the
web page.  The color and the form are not the same.  I was overwhelmed
with that iris when it bloomed in the fall and thought I have the
rebloomer everyone is looking for and it will make me famous! As it turned
out, 91-14-ARE is an extremely slow grower and will probably never be
introduced.  As you can tell, the cross was made in 1991.  Normally, by
this time I should have enough of this iris to introduce, but I have only
about seven rhizomes.

	I have had other 'good' seedlings perform the same way....a blue
with white veins throughout.  It was a knockout the first summer it
bloomed, but the bloom has not impressed me since.  Also, this 'rayed'
seedling gave maiden bloom in the summer of 1994, but it has never bloomed
in the summer since.

	I am keeping my fingers crossed for your seedling and am hoping it
will increase for you and bloom again and again.  But, a word of
caution...


	Good luck!

	Walter Moores
	Enid Lake, MS 7/8


	


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