ideal reblooming iris

From: z88keys@mindspring.com (L.Zurbrigg)

Hello, all. Betty prompts me to talk, so here goes. I have been trying for
decades to get good reblooming irises, mostly tall bearded. Yes, one may
have to breed with inferior flowers at first, and then breed for quality, -
- as I did. For TB we have arrived at the stage where there is lots off
quality and beauty, --- and in most of my introductions, suitablility to a
wide variety of climates. My move to North Carolina made the work with
rebloomers more difficult because of the extremely hot summers. So, I have
switched goals a little and do a lot with the Space-Age lines. My new goal
is to get reblooming Space-Agers suitable for the East. I believe that if
they are hardy in our unpredictable but hot summers, they will flourish in
many other climates.
    I do not have the time or land to grow my introductions in a perennial
border, but as babies they had no mulch and were almost never sprayed, so
they are rather hardy on average, and I would expect many introductions o
mine to perform well in the said perennial border.
    The Space-Agers produce a lot of interest as seedlings, and the rate of
"worthiness" might possibly be closer to 1 in 100 rather than 1 in 1000.
But there are lots of ugly ones, so I may be wrong. What is certain that
here is a field that opens onto a wide horizon. We may get irises with the
odd charm of strelitzia regina at one extreme, or just new combinations of
white with blue spoons, or other color contrasts.These Space-Age hybrids
are not as hardy yet as the best of the "regular" rebloomers, but they are
very exciting.  Lloyd Zurbrigg in Durham NC




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