My cool season reblooming bearded iris plantings at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in rural Goochland County, VA needed renovation to enhance flowering prospects. Rebloomers as a rule grow twice as fast as their spring only counterparts. They DO NOT have a summer dormancy period in order to set flower buds for fall bloom. Clumps get large in a hurry and future flowering can abruptly disappear.
TB Re Just Call Me
A longer hurricane season pumped unprecedented tropical air and moisture into Central Virginia throughout September, October and November. Soil saturation can be a bane for bearded iris particularly in the standard dwarf bearded class. Roots disappear and fall flowering can be delayed or eliminated on remontants. This scenario played out for both median named varieties and seedlings.
SDB Re Baby Blessed
The tall bearded fall results at JSRCC for 2020 seem to back up this contention with a few exceptions. TB Re Just Call Me (Wilkerson, 2008), My Friend Jonathan (B. Miller, 1996) and Hidden Sky (Lockatell, R. 2019) were the best multiple clump performers.
TB Re Hidden Sky
Despite no significant division, TB Re Immortality (Zurbrigg, 1982), Lunar Whitewash (Innerst, 2003) and Over & Over (Innerst, 2000) also gave consistent fall flowers. Hidden Sky's results give me hope TB Re Clarence (Zurbrigg, 1991) offspring can contribute new colors, improved flowering habits and earlier rebloom reliability for cool season growing environments.
TB Re Sdlg.#21233
Lockatell TB Re Sdlg.#21233 had another solid fall rebloom season at JSRCC. A division was installed during a fall planting in 2018. A bloomstalk had open flowers in time for the 2019 AIS Region 4 Fall Meeting Flower Show held in West End Richmond.
Judges gave my seedling “Best in Show” honors. The same script played out again in 2020 at the Goochland County location. Eye catching erythrite red standards have cadmium orange infused midribs. Falls are erythrite red with an amethyst violet blaze and cadmium orange shoulders. Beards are orange. Flowering commenced in late September and lasted through October. Registration will be pursued after upcoming spring bloom.
There are always bright lights in the darkness. Long time selections such as SDB Re Baby Blessed (Zurbrigg, 1979) and MTB Re Lady Emma (F.P. Jones,1986) provide consistent fall rebloom at JSRCC. 2020 was no exception. Flowering took place throughout the fall season. During a summer visit to Des Moines, Iowa a few years ago. WayneRe Messer told me about surprising fall flowering on SDB Re Prank (Keppel, 2000). Wayne sent me bare root divisions to try. They were potted up and were on the list for fall planting in 2019. Both clumps rebloomed in mid October. Thank you Wayne for the timely tip.
SDB Re Prank
More recent median varieties from past and present AIS Region 4 hybridizers with November flowering were SDB Re Anne Lowe (Spoon, 2011), SDB Purple Joy (Spoon, 2009), SDB Sailboat Bay (Zurbrigg, 2004) and MDB Re Trimmed Velvet (Spoon, 2006). Due to the unseasonably warm weather, rebloom in Goochland County lasted an extra week. Flower buds on both SDB named varieties and seedlings continued to appear into December. Most of them were unfortunately short and damaged, so cutting for indoor enjoyment was not an option.
SDB Re Sailboat Bay
As 2020 came to a close, Central Virginia experienced its third wettest year on record. Rainfall totals were a staggering 63.52.” or twenty inches more than the previous year. A normal growing season would be welcome. Considering the destruction from weather and the COVID-19 pandemic, these sentiments may be wishful thinking in the short term.
TB Re My Friend Jonathan
MTB Re Lady Emma
