Re: Rebloomers

Marte Halleck wrote:
> 
> Have a question for y'all -- as you may recall, I planted my first
> "rebloomers" last year & the SDB's have been blooming well for me, TB's
> nicely budded out. The nursery tip-sheet I got with the rz says: "do not
> break off the sockets or the stalk at bloom completion as is done with
> oncers. Rebloomers...tend to rebloom from the same sockets..."

Marte.

If I were given that "Tip" sheet, I would take back to the nursery, find
the manager and explain to him that maybe on some other planet that is
how it works, but not on this one, and that if that is the quality of
the advice he gives out, he desparately needs help.

The socket is the spot along the stalk where the bloom forms. Rebloomers
form completely new stalks to bloom from, they don't rebloom in the same
socket. 

NOW, what may be confusing, is that many irises today (at least TBs) are
"double or triple" socketed. This means that the same socket may produce
a second or third bloom, one following the other, in the same season.
This is not reblooming as it is defined in irisdom. Reblooming occurs
after the rz has had time to recover its strength from the first bloom
period, and puts up a new stalk from a separate increase. Not all (in
fact only a small subset) irises rebloom, but most that you get these
days will provide at least two flowers in the same socket. You can feel
the second bloom forming at the base fo the first one if you gently
squeeze the base of the socket, and you do want to be careful breaking
off the first bloom after it has faded. Hold the second bud and gently
bend the first bloom away from the socket. Sometimes the second bloom
will open before the first has faded, but I think this is considered a
flaw.

I am not sure that all the above about double socketing applies to SDBs
because I can't grow them here, but I guarantee that even reblooming
SDBs throw a new stalk to rebloom.



John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

John Jones, jijones@ix.netcom.com
Fremont CA, USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay) 
Max high 95F/35C, Min Low 28F/-2C average 10 days each
Heavy clay base for my raised beds.
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