REB: Sutton's talk at Convention

I missed most of George Sutton's presentation on reblooming irises at
the Convention, but got there in time to hear some interesting comments.

He apparently read some of the emails that he'd received in response to
Mike & Margaret's post requesting information on how we all grow
rebloomers, then commented on his experiences in relation to what the
emails said.  He didn't give names of the people who said various
things, but by coincidence, the one he read just after I walked in, was
mine!

I had said that most rebloom here doesn't start until about 6 weeks
after we've had some cool nights, usually that's in August, lows in the
40s.  I was thinking mostly of fall rebloom.

He said (and Mike has posted similar observations) that they get rebloom
all summer, with temperatures in the 90s, without cool nights.  Then he
said they had umpteen zillion plants of IMMORTALITY and only got 3
bloomstalks (or something like that).

At least one year here, IMMORTALITY (one puny clump) bloomed 5 different
times.

His observation was that IMMORTALITY may require a lower pH to rebloom
well.

Correct me if I'm way off on this, but I <think> few of the California
rebloomers are reliable rebloomers in the eastern US, where we have
mostly acid soil.  Dave Niswonger has asked for information on pH
comparisons for variour rebloomers and I know some folks in Oz are
collecting data on the relationship between pH and rebloom.

Anyway, what I came away with is that there may be some genetic
differences among rebloomers in the way they respond to both temperature
and pH, as well as daylength.

And of course, they all need lots of water and extra nutrients.

Any of the rest of you who heard the whole talk - please comment.

As soon as IMM finishes ripening pods, I'm going to really load up the
lime on one clump, just to see what happens.
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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