February 2024
NO MEETING FEBRUARY, 2024
Meetings to resume in March!
During these cold winter months we need to be thinking spring will come and the iris will bloom!
Member, Delane Langton has written an article for this newsletter, 2023 Rebloom at Eagle Ridge Iris Gardens, Billings, MT, including a picture of a frosty rebloomer!
2024 MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY DUES ARE NOW PAYABLE! Dues are $10.00 a person.
Please remit to: Swede Gustafson, Treasurer, 3128 Eldora Lane, Missoula, MT 59803.
You can refer to the December newsletter membership list attachment or your hard copy to check your dues status or email Swede at swedeandba@gmail.com if you have questions.
American Iris Society members check your dues status! If you are interested in joining the American Iris Society, contact Betty Ann Gustafson, by email or phone, 406.370.1696.
2024 AIS/Japanese National Iris Convention, Portland, OR, June 26—June 29
Greater Portland Iris Society, of Portland Oregon, would like to invite you to the AIS National Convention with the Society for Japanese Irises in a joint Convention June 26th-29th, 2024. The Convention will entail a Welcome Banquet, Section Programs, several Judges Training sessions, Garden Tours, a Live Plant Auction, and the Closing AIS Awards Banquet. Go to the American Iris Society website for more details.
2025 AIS National Convention, June 2nd – 7th, BILLINGS, MT
Meet us in Montana For Iris under the Big Sky, June 2nd - 7th 2025, sponsored by the Big Sky Iris Club! SAVE THE DATE!
The AIS National Convention has never been in Montana. What an honor and a lot of hard work by the Big Sky Iris Club to bring it to Montana. Start thinking now about going! We will continue to have updates for you throughout the year.
Treasurer's Report: The 2024 Annual Report was filed with the State of Montana, January 24, 2024.
Missoula Iris Society Officers for 2024: President: Betty Ann Gustafson
Vice President: Anne Bowman
Secretary: Mitch Hall
Treasurer: Swede Gustafson
Presidential Iris winners: Al Ledford, Carol Addeo, Marie Nyquist and Jim Sadler were the Presidential Rhizome winners for November/December 2023, and January/February 2024, respectively.
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2023 REBLOOM AT EAGLE RIDGE IRIS GARDENS
Delane H. Langton
After a tough winter here in our Montana zone 4b, our early bloom started on time and would end up being one of the best bloom years we’ve had. That being said, our rebloom started earlier than normal. On June 19th, Autumn Jester (Chapman, 00) always first, started the repeat bloom party. We love this one (and all the other Chapman rebloomers) as it just keeps going all summer. Another brand new favorite is Sunbeams Forever (2022 SDB) by Colin Campbell. It also blooms all summer. This one’s parentage is from Spoon reblooming SDB’s, Ray Jones X Kumquat. I have crossed Autumn Jester X Sunbeams Forever and hope for something besides yellow’s and purple’s, but want to continue the all summer rebloom. I’ll keep working newer SDB’s into this mix and see what turns up.
We did end up with an extraordinary rebloom season with 160 cultivars reblooming. I’ll highlight some more that caught our attention for one reason or another, starting with order of rebloom. Dawn Of Fall (Jensen, 1976) bloomed all of July and August. Eternal Summer, a Spec-X by Chuck Chapman, 2012, went all summer and continued until our first freeze. It also produced lots of bee pods. We already have some seedlings in the pipeline and hope they aren’t all purple. Frost Echo (Aitken, 95) is also an often rebloomer for us and started the end of July and the first week of August. It then rested two weeks, bloomed for the first two weeks of September, rested 10 days, and bloomed AGAIN the last two weeks of October. Cosmic Delight (Aitken, 13), a wonderful orange, started the end of July and continued straight through the end of September. Peach Echo by Bryan Spoon (15), bloomed all of August, rested September and then bloomed all of October. Autumn Wine (Christopherson, 03. BB) rebloomed all of August and again in September and the middle of October. Pinkness (Byers, 88) and Emma’s Laughter (Poole, 06), kept putting up stalk after stalk until an ice storm finished us on October 26th.
Uriah The Hittite is another reliable zone 4 rebloomer from Bernice Miller. After you do this for a while, you start to recognize the hybridizer’s names that specialize in rebloom and seek them out. G. P. Brown is one of these hybridizers. His September Sailor (1959) is a favorite for its root beer scent and fantastic rebloom in September and October.
Sailboat Bay by Zurbrigg, 2000 (SDB) is one that Mike Lockatell is a fan of and sent to us. It was noted as zone 6 rebloom, but also performs very well in zone 4b. Reblooming two weeks in September and October.
Now for some new talls, Lava Love (Aitken, 2022) was gorgeous in the middle of September. Ocean’s Edge (M. Sutton, 2020), Vintage Charm (Schreiner, 2018), Cowboy Boots (M. Sutton, 2021) and Revitalize (M. Sutton, 2022), all looked beautiful and can now boast rebloom in zone 4b.
How about a couple of Miniature Bearded Dwarf (MDB) up to 8” rebloomers? Bright Mite by Aitken, 2019 rebloomed an entire month starting the end of September. This one had only been reported to rebloom in zone 8. Hilda’s Gift (D. Spoon, 2002) enjoyed a long rebloom too and had only been reported in its home, Winterberry Garden, zone 6. More newer ones from Winterberry’s Don Spoon include, Momma Rosemary (2011), Kind Candice (2011) and Lemon Candy (2022).
I’ll cap this off with what turned out to be very icy photos. As mentioned before, October 26th brought 1/2 inch of freezing rain just as our rebloom was really, really taking off. It was followed by 7 inches of snow and a week of cold temperatures. That ended our rebloom. It did warm back up and our winter has been very warm (40*-50*) highs as I write this, January 2, 2024. We’ve done lots of garden cleanup and look forward to a new year.
