Okay, Again and Again tried to bloom last November into December. Then no bloom this spring. Over the summer it grew three large fans, all of which now feel like they have a bloom stalk about ready to break out of the fan. Now they will all surely freeze before blooming since it is almost November and bloom is still a ways out.

So.... is there a way to reset the internal timer as it were? If I dug them up and potted them, brought them inside for a spell, then planted them again next spring, is there any chance that they would start blooming earlier, or in the spring? Or am I stuck with a pretty iris with a death by frost wish?

My Nine Eleven Remembered and Sweetheart Ring do the same thing, always too late for the show. They are usually not even out enough to bring in to finish blooming. At least they could bloom in May and not in November!

So folks any help?

I don't have a clue, maybe you're fertilizing them too well and they get too far along by fall time. Try to slow the growth down somehow??? Just a guess on my part.

I have a few that 'fall bloom only"......I'm guessing that growth of the new increase is slow enough , that they can't manage "2 cycles" in one growing season . First thing I would try, is moving the plant....that should interrupt the growth cycle for a while. Moving it to a warmer "micro climate *might* give you a few more days of 'season", and , perhaps that would be sufficient to get a spring AND fall bloom.

Try them in 7b Good luck!

I would be happy with just one bloom in warmer weather. I got it last year in the middle of September and it got planted about then. I was surprised it bloomed by November last year. I am dismayed that it has chosen to do the same this year. I would love to interrupt this cycle. As far as I know they bloomed earlier at Greg's. Think potting is about the only option?

Leslie -- I have no clue. If it were mine, I'd probably just pinch off the bloom stalk, hoping it would send that unused energy into increases.

No clue. Irises bloom as the fans mature.

Does cutting off a newly emerged bloom stalk save the mother rhizome? If these 3 all go toward bloom I will only have some very small increases left and they still need mom's energy.

I suspect that the mother rhizome will go the way of all mother rhizomes. But the *plant* will not have expended the energy required to bloom. So -- maybe it will spend that energy on those very small increases so that they're big enough to bloom in the spring. Or -- at least, early autumn. Just speculating...

I would move it to an area where it would receive less sun earlier in the fall and therefore think fall is coming earlier. That has worked for me on a few of them. If diminished light is the trigger that makes an iris rebloom this will work. I am moving my re's to an area where the shade from the house will begin to give them less sun, and therefore cooler temps, in late August and they have actually had blooms in late September and October. I am going to keep working on this project next summer and see if I can get more of the re's to bloom earlier. Last year I tented a lot of irises and that not only was a lot of work but looked quite ugly in the garden.

Cuzz4short said:Try them in 7b

Gabriel

Again & Again is a funny bird. It likes to get moved after Spring time and this will prompt it to bloom again that year. You need to either speed up the bloom process for the Fall (more fert and water) or try and go the other way and put it into a drought situation. I have had little luck in controlling it (though this year I will not get any Fall/Summer re-bloom from "Again & Again").

The fact that I get "re-bloom" throughout the Summer on "Again & Again" indicates that the increses on the Fall bloomers are not mature enough to bloom in the Spring.

You can not "save" the mother rhizome. A expert (botany) would need to tell you if cutting the stalk would push the plant to put it's energy into the increases. My guess is that it would have a minimal effect; but that is just a guess.

The best way to "re-start" a re-bloomer is to dig it up in July and do not put it back in the ground until September. No pot, just sitting in the garage loose.

Remember; most of my experience is with re-bloom happening without the extra help I should be giving.

Now I remember when I first had SDB 'Chanted' blooming without increase, I was told to cut the bloom stalk to make energy go into increases. I did & it worked.

Welcome back Greg!!!

I planted it last year in September remember. Thinking I need to replant it earlier, so if it insists on fall bloom, it may start the process earlier. I sure would like to see it actually bloom as it should. Last year's bloom was a frost derived chimera. Since I have three different fans all trying, I could nip the stalk on one, pot one, and leave one be.