Anyone know a nice..

White Reblooming Siberian that will do good in zone 5b? I am planning my plantings for the summer, and I am thinking of doing a bed of Siberians. I have a bit more faith in abilty to raise irises now. Thanks to all the fine folk here, I should (god willing) actually have irises bloom this year.

Esther C.D.M. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/33246/index.html
Fourfold White http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/33253/index.html
Limeheart http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/33280/index.html
Moon Silk http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/33291/index.html

There's actually lots more listed in PlantFiles. Here's a search I just did for White Siberians. It does pick up some others if they have white in the bloom, but it's a great starting point. http://davesgarden.com/pf/advanced.php?nn%5B71%5D=9&nn%5B1%5D=0&nn%5B2%5D=0&nn%5B3%5D=0&nn%5B4%5D=0&nn%5B5%5D=0&nn%5B6%5D=26&nn%5B7%5D=0&nn%5B8%5D=0&nn%5B9%5D=0&nn%5B23%5D=0&nn%5B10%5D=0&nn%5B12%5D=0&sname=Iris&Search.x=34&Search.y=13&offset=0

Chartreuse Bounty, Creme Chantilly, Slightly Envious and White Prelude are white or off white, and are remontant. One that reblooms often, but is not white is Reprise, a pretty purple. Siberian Iris are not often rebloomers, so you are narrowing your field quite a bit by wanting rebloomers. A lot of the prettiest whites do not rebloom.

Joan,

What do you do to make the four you listed rebloom? I get my bearded rebloomers to reloom with TLC after the first bloom but have never experimented with sibs. When my indoor-for-the-winter LAs bloom, they will sometimes rebloom but never sibs.

Suppose you could say Frost End reblooms sometime but that is a pseudacorus, not a sib. Holden Clough sometimes too.

inanda

Inanda, I'm not Joan, but I do have some of the remontant sibs, Creme Chantilly, Reprise, and Summer Revels. And they do rebloom for me.

I let them rest for awhile after bloom, and then heavily Miracle Grow them. Their rebloom is normally shortly after the first bloom.

The reblooming iris society has a list of siberians. Most sibs don't rebloom, no matter what you do.

Oh, guess that explains it. I have an organic garden. Thanks for the info.

Seeing tht I garden with youngsters, and keep talking about 'clean'; gardening, looking after their world, composting, chemical fertilizers etc etc, I don't miricle grow, although I do use it inside in the winter, with my iris & lily seedlings.

inanda

Bless you for doing that with the children.

I do use Miracle Gro, but no inorganic fertilizers otherwise. Lots of composted manure. I don't use any of the sprays for bugs, etc.

Have you tried any of the iris listed as remontant? Do sibs grow well in Z2?

I don't think I've ever had a sib rebloom either. Some of them bloom for quite a long time, but I can't recall any of them ever blooming later in the year again.

My growing season is so short that I have a hard time even getting the reblooming bearded iris to rebloom.

Siberians aren't really remontant like the bearded. It's more they have a longer period of bloom.

Some sibs are considered rebloomers by the rebloomin iris society, however. Reprise for one has a really long bloom time, going right thru Japanese Iris season here. Also I will get some sporadic bloom in the fall on some, but nothing showy.

But if you want one with the really long blooming season try Reprise.

There are also some Japanese Iris considered rebloomers, but here again, it's mainly that they have an extended season.

On the sibs and ji you don't really notice a break between the bloom like you do on the reblooming bearded.

One think I do at the end of the season trim them down near the ground, then mulch them and the JI with the cheapest steer manure about 3-4" thick....have really good luck here in OR with nice big blooms and lots of rebloom on the Sibs.

D