‘Summer Radiance’
(Betty Wilkerson 1996, TB-Re)
‘Returning Chameleon’
(Betty Wilkerson 1995, TB-Re)
bloom season. “I read catalogs and wrote to people
everywhere, including Ben Hager, Monty Byers,
Raymond Smith and Lloyd Zurbrigg,” she wrote.
During one early reblooming iris robin exchange,
Betty was told to use TB-Re ‘I Do’ (Zurbrigg, 1974)
instead of TB-Re ‘Immortality’ (Zurbrigg, 1982). Lloyd
Zurbrigg would later chime in, “You
were using the right one if rebloom
was your goal.” My mentor and
friend’s sound advice would bring
Betty future success.
Betty wrote, “Since I’ve been
growing modern irises, the flower
form of northern rebloomers has
been a bone of contention. It is still
the white elephant in the middle of
the room that no one wants to talk
about. Did I step on toes without
knowing it? Probably so. I was
just too dumb and enthusiastic.
Warm season rebloom breeders
are quite happy with customers
they have within their own growing
zones. They don’t feel the need to
hybridize for cool season climates such as Zones 4–7.”
‘Just Call Me’
(Betty Wilkerson 2008, TB-Re)
Her email commentary went on: “I felt the same
weight of opinion with the iris society that Lloyd did.
He chose to improve flower form through northern
rebloomers. I admired his tenacity. However, it
seemed like a very long road to me. My goal was
to improve form while retaining rebloom. I really
don’t think that made him right or me wrong. It just
meant we had different approaches. Do I expect first
generation rebloom? Not at all, but I’ll accept it when
‘Echo Location’
(Betty Wilkerson 2007, TB-Re)
it happens. If I had it to do over again, I’d do a lot of
things differently.”
My friendship with Betty Wilkerson started with
the Triple R Reblooming Robin. After Lloyd Zurbrigg’s
passing in 2005, we helped each other weather
devastating blows in the garden and in our personal
lives. As luck would have it, we
never had the great pleasure of
meeting each other face-to-face.
We had to rely on email and
phone calls. My cell phone, for
instance, would allow Betty to
vicariously walk my garden beds
with me at J. Sargeant Reynolds
Community College (JSRCC)
in Goochland County, VA, to
evaluate and interpret spring
flowering plus summer and fall
rebloom. Even though we took
different avenues to the breeding
obstacles we faced, Betty and I
celebrated triumphs and lamented
disappointments. Managing
expectations became a necessity.
A mutual trust allowed me the great privilege
over the years to trial Wilkerson seedlings and
registrations. TB-Re ‘Returning Chameleon’
(Wilkerson, 1995), ‘Summer Radiance’ (Wilkerson,
1996), ‘Radiant Bliss’ (Wilkerson, 2005), ‘Echo
Location’ (Wilkerson, 2007) and ‘Just Call Me’
(Wilkerson, 2008) instantly come to mind. Each one
represented badly needed advances and expanded
the gene pool for cool season rebloom.
TB-Re ‘Radiant Bliss’ is unfortunately a late fall
Spring 2018 AIS Bulletin 13