reblooming iris

Any one having real good luck in getting lots of bloom in zone 5a

where is zone 5?????

Immortality.

You asked where zone 5 was. I live about 65 miles south of the Il. Wis. border and almost equal distance from the Mississippi river and lake Michigan. Imortality was my first one, and I now have probably 15 rebloomers. Cantina sent up a fabulous stalk that had a real good number of buds. Clarence had two stalks, but the second one was so late it got frozen by a real hard freeze. That is my problem some just bloom too late.

well as you probably know I am way on the other side of the US and we of course do not have snow, but we do freeze, and I have several stalks ready to pop but I don't think they will take much more of this frost......I have a row of Kiss of Kisses and I wish they had not bloomed again, I will probably not be able to save them:(

Here is a map showing all of the zones. Zone 5 is shown in two shades of green:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

I have rebloom here, but most things don't rebloom. So far the following have rebloomed for me:
Romantic Evening
Double your Fun
Elephant Footprints
Sugar Blues

This is out of about 250 irises, but I wasn't trying for rebloom. I was just buying pretty irises. A lot of my irises rebloom somewhere, but have not done so here.

thanks for the map, just curious about where some folks are, you would not believe the iris stalks I have some still trying to open even after we had a good frost last night and a few nights before.....
Cruise control has blue pushing through I am going to try to grab some of them tomorrow

Well, it looks like blooming too late is a universal problem. My first rebloomer was Immortality. I was driving thru this town not too far from my farm when I spotted this nice big white iris in bloom. It was August. I kept watching and each time I drove past this house there was another stalk blooming. This kept up until the first week in Dec. Then it got real cold and the last ones froze. One time drove by there was a car in the drive, so I stopped and asked if she would sell me a start of her white iris. Her responce was oh yes, leave your name and address. I will drop you a line when they are ready. I do not dig until they go dormant. That puzzled me, but I left my name. Sure enough Dec. 10 I got her card. Well Dec is not the ideal time to plant iris in northern Ill. I bought 3 hoping one would live. And sure enough only one did live. It is the best bloomer I have.All of the rest I have bought from Schreiners. They do not list any of the ones that Pajaritomt listed. I have just joined the reblooming society, so I should now have new sources.

You might try other Zurbrigg's rebloomers such as English Cottage, Perfume Counter, and I Do. These bloom early in the spring and have the best chance to rebloom in the fall also. In addition, SDB Baby Blessed, Jewel Baby, and Raspberry Jam should rebloom well. Zurbrigg's Clarence has been reported to rebloom in zone 5a (see detailed information for Clarence) I am in zone 6b and also have good rebloom from Zurbrigg's Amain, Anew, and Amanda Erin. E. Hall's Queen Dorothy also reblooms quite well for me and was blooming as late as mid Nov. until we had a hard freeze.

Good luck with the rebloomers.
Here is English Cottage. It is quite prolific. I had to give away about 200 rhizomes this past summer, and will have more next year. It is one of my earliest bloomers in the spring.

The Winterberry Gardens iris catalogue lists tons of rebloomers, and the zones they have proven to rebloom in.

One thing you want to look at if you want rebloom is that it a very early bloomer the first time and that is what the season means.

That way you have a fighting chance. Also as soon as it blooms the first time, de stalk it and feed it well.

Hope this helps

D

I had a rebloom stalk on Zurich, but it didn't open due to freezing. That was its first ever bloom, so I am hoping that it will bloom in the spring and then rebloom before frost next year. Not a whole lot reblooms here, but I no longer feel that it is quite so unlikely as I used to.
Dee I will definitely take your advice about destalking and fertilizing right afterwards next near.

I have both English Cottage and Clarence '08 was year two for them and neither bloomed in the spring, however Clarence sent up two stalks in the fall. The first was early enough that it would have bloomed. Iris nut that I am I cut it and took it with me on an out of town trip. My host, not a gardener thought I was totally daft. When I got home I discovered the second stalk. That one froze before it was mature enough to cut. I also have Baby Blessed, and it sent up a total of 4 stalks nicely timed so I had a long period to enjoy it.