The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 DeBaillon Medal Winner

'WATERMELON WIZARD'

The DeBaillon Medal is restricted to Louisiana (LA) irises. It is named in honor of Mary Swords DeBaillon (1888-1940). Mary DeBaillon realized how varied Louisiana irises were and what lovely garden plants they were. Mary DeBaillon amassed the largest collection of Louisiana irises in the world. She was tireless in promoting these irises as good garden plants and in encouraging any who would listen to grow them. She gained considerable fame as a naturalist and native plant collector.

Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'Watermelon Wizard'
photo by Riley Probst

'Watermelon Wizard' (Hooker Nichols, R. 2011) Seedling LA 05-70. LA, 36 (91 cm), Late midseason bloom. Standards and falls salmon-raspberry blend, darker veining and lines throughout; signals small gold line. 'Heather Pryor' X 'Guessing Game'. Introduced by Hillcrest Iris Gardens in 2011.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Mitchell Medal Winner

'GOING BANANAS'

The Mitchell Medal is restricted to Pacific Coast Native (PCN) irises. It is named in honor of Sydney B. Mitchell (1878-1951). Professor Sydney Mitchell was an educator. He became Acting Librarian at the University of California during WW I, and later founded and became first director of the Graduate School of Librarianship at that university. He was also one of the organizers of the American Iris Society.

Tom Craig wrote this of him: "Sydney looked upon plant breeding as a long term international effort in which individuals from all over the world should co-operate and add generation after generation to a real human achievement. He made me feel a real part of this and more particularly a part of a special work started by William Mohr and carried on by himself. Sydney generously gave flowers and plants of seedling for further encouragement with this work."

Mitchell was also interested in the native irises of the West Coast, and promoted them at every opportunity. He took great pride in the plantings of PCNs in his own garden. He had a large collection of various forms of Iris innominata and I. douglasiana. 

Previous award winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'Going Bananas'
photo by Mike Unser

'Going Bananas' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2010) Seedling #JP-121Z. CA, 12" (30 cm). Early thru late bloom. Gold self, creamy white dime signal. Seedling #HP-152R2: (seedling #FP-273U2: (seedling #DP-260N2, 'Coin Of The Realm' pod parent, x seedling #DP-250, 'Marriage Proposal' sibling) x 'Bowl Of Fluff') X seedling #HP-125X2, 'Cashing In' sibling. Introduced by Bay View Gardens in 2010.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Randolph-Perry Medal Winners

 'KUROKAWA-NOH' and 'YASHA' (Tie)

The Randolph-Perry Medal is restricted to interspecies irises (SPEC-X). It is named in honor of Dr. L. F. Randolph (1894-1980) and Amos Perry (1871-1953).

Dr. L. F. Randolph, or "Fitz" as he was affectionately called by his many friends and associates, was chairman of the AIS Scientific Committee from 1945 to 1956. The work he and his students Jyotirmay Mitra and Katherine Heinig did on iris chromosomes produced many published monographs and provide the basis of our scientific understanding of the genus. He conducted a number of extensive iris species collection expeditions and brought back new species and many new forms of other iris species, especially of I. pumila.

Amos Perry was born into a family of nurserymen. Perry was one of the first hybridizers to use the tetraploid irises 'Amas,' I trojana, I. mesopotamica and I. cypriana. He introduced scores of new bearded cultivars, but he was more interested in Siberian irises and iris species. He probably created more new hybrid interspecies irises than any other iris breeder. His new hybrid irises often had names that indicated their species parentage, such as 'Chrysogana' (I. chrysographes x I. bulleyana); 'Tebract' (I. tenax x I. bracteata); 'Longsib' (I. longipetala x I. siberica); and 'Chrysowigi' (I. chrysographes x I. hartwegii).

Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

Pseudata 'Kurokawa-Noh'
photo by Terry Aitken

'Kurokawa-Noh' (J. Terry Aitken, R. 2011) SPEC-X (pseudata), 52 (132 cm), Midseason late bloom. Standards cream overlaid burgundy wash and veins, inconspicuous; style arms deep burgundy, yellow stigmatic lip, semi-upright; Falls cream washed burgundy at edges and delicately applied on veins, dramatic deep burgundy eye shadow halo around gold signal, semi-flared. Parentage unknown, seed from Hiroshi Shimizu. Introduced through Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden in 2011.

Pseudata: 'Yasha'

photo by Mike Unser

'Yasha' (Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, R. 2010) SPEC-X (Pseudata); 48", Midseason bloom. Red-violet standards and falls, very deep red-violet eyelash around smaller yellow signal; violet style arms; color changes dramatically as flower opens. 'Gubijin' X unknown (mixed JI pollen). Introduced by Carol Warner's Draycott Gardens in 2010.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Founders of SIGNA Medal Winner

'ALL STRIPES'

The Founders of SIGNA Medal is restricted to species irises (SPEC) and is named to honor the founding members of the Species Iris Group of North America (SIGNA). Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'All Stripes'

photo by Carl Boro

'All Stripes'> (Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks, R. 2014). Seedling #SP07-3-10. SPEC (setosa), 18" (46 cm). Late midseason bloom. Standards insignificant bristles; style arms cream ground, heavily sanded raspberry; falls white ground heavily veined raspberry (RHS 72A), V-shaped white signal has touch of yellow at the hafts. Parentage unknown, SIGNA seed from Fumiharu Sato. Introduced by Joe Pye Weed's Garden of Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks in 2014.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 C. G. White Medal Winner

'ALAKAZAM'

Since 1993, the Clarence G. White Memorial Medal has been awarded to the best arilbred iris with 1/2 or more aril ancestry. When Clarence G. White began his work with aril irises, little was known about the complexity of iris genetics. White assembled the largest collection of aril irises in the world and conducted thousands of breeding experiments to obtain viable, fertile seedlings. One of his goals was to develop strong, pure Oncocylus hybrids.

Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards. 

'Alakazam'

photo by Jeanette Graham

'Alakazam' (Richard Tasco, R. 2013) Seedling 07-AB-52-07. AB (OGB), 36" (91 cm). Midseason bloom. Standards light pink-lavender ground, veined darker pink-violet; style arms light maize, pink-violet midrib, pink crest, veined darker; Falls light parchment-lavender heavily veined dark burgundy all over to the edge, signal very diffuse and small, veined dark burgundy; beards gold-bronze in middle and throat, burgundy end, sparse and insignificant; medium purple based foliage; regelia form. Seedling 05-AB-10-14: ('Energizer' x 'Desert Embroidery') X 'Desert Embroidery'. Introduced by Superstition Iris Gardens in 2013.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Williamson-White Medal Winner

'BREAKFAST IN BED'

The Williamson-White Medal is restricted to miniature tall bearded (MTB) irises. It is named in honor of E. B. Williamson (1877-1933), his daughter Mary Williamson (1909-1987) and Alice White (1886-1969). Although others had introduced irises that fit into the miniature tall bearded iris class before Williamson, he and his daughter were the first to breed them as cultivars in a distinctive class of irises. They were apparently byproducts of breeding for tall bearded irises. In the early 1950s, Alice White of Hemet, California began a crusade to gain recognition for the assets of these wonderful smaller irises. She organized table iris robins and wrote many articles for the AIS Bulletin and gardening magazines promoting their virtues.

Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'BREAKFAST IN BED'
photo by Mike Unser

'Breakfast in Bed' (Charles Bunnell, R. 2013) Seedling #K65B-10. MTB, 22-25 (56-63 cm). Late midseason bloom. Standards yellow (RHS 2B) blended with red-purple (71B), veined red-purple; style arms yellow; falls cream, red-purple blend towards middle end of falls, rims are bright yellow, heavily veined red-purple; beard hairs based yellow-orange, yellow tips. 'Yellow Flirt' X seedling #E24-2: ( 'Consummation' x 'Rosemary's Dream'). Introduced by Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden in 2014.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

 

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Sass Medal Winner

'APPLE CRISP'

The Sass Medal is restricted to intermediate bearded (IB) irises. It is named in honor of Hans Sass (1868-1949) and Jacob Sass (1872-1945). They bred irises, peonies, daylilies, lilacs, gladiolus, lilies and other garden plants. When they became charter members of the AIS, they had been breeding irises
for more than a decade. Their irises were famous for being strong growers because they used 'Amas' and I. trojana as tetraploid stud irises instead of the tender I. mesopotamica and I. cypriana.

Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'APPLE CRISP'

photo by Jeanette Graham

'Apple Crisp' (Paul Black, R. 2013) Seedling #R202B. IB, 26" (66 cm), Midseason to late bloom. Standards mid gold, mid garnet wash over center, yellow-gold rim; style arms mid gold; falls mid gold, mid brown-tan veins/wash beside beards, mid yellow patch below beard, remainder heavily washed garnet in center and lighter towards mid yellow rim; beards gold; pronounced spicy fragrance. Seedling M18A: ('High Master' x seedling J212A: ('Key To Success' selfed)) X 'Love Spell'. Introduced by Mid-America Garden 2014.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES. 

The American Iris Society Announces the 2022 Knowlton Medal Winner

'BOY GENIUS'

The Knowlton Medal is restricted to border bearded (BB) irises. It is named in honor of Harold W. Knowlton (1888-1968) of Auburndale, Massachusetts, a tireless promoter of the border bearded class of irises. Bennett Jones wrote in The World of Irises: "Harold Knowlton was among the first to make deliberate selections of smaller plants. Two of his 1950 introductions, ‘Pearl Cup’ ... and ‘Cricket’... display the desirable features we still seek in modern border irises." Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'BOY GENIUS' 

photo by Jeanette Graham

 'Boy Genius' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2011) Seedling #04-44B. BB, 25" (64 cm), Very early to early bloom. Standards gold, black tint at midrib; falls almost solid mahogany black, gold dotting around beards, gold hairline edge; beards gold. Seedling 02-160: (seedling 00-98B: ('Feelings' x seedling U97-F, unknown) x 'High Master') X seedling 02-317Q: ('High Master' x seedling 00-98B). Introduced by Bay View Gardens in 2012.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2021 Mitchell Medal Winners

'LINE DRAWING' and 'CORRALITOS CREEK'

The Mitchel Medal is restricted to Pacific Coast Native (PCN) irises. It is named in honor of Sydney B. Mitchell (1878-1951). Prof. Sydney Mitchell was an educator. He became Acting Librarian at the University of California during WW I, and later founded and became first director of the Graduate School of Librarianship at that university. He was also one of the organizers of the American Iris Society.

Tom Craig wrote this of him: "Sydney looked upon plant breeding as a long term international effort in which individuals from all over the world should co-operate and add generation after generation to a real human achievement. He made me feel a real part of this and more particularly a part of a special work started by William Mohr and carried on by himself. Sydney generously gave flowers and plants of seedling for further encouragement with this work."

Mitchell was also interested in the native irises of the West Coast, and promoted them at every opportunity. He took great pride in the plantings of PCNs in his own garden. He had a large collection of various forms of I. innominata and I. douglasiana. 

Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic last year, the American Iris Society Board of Directors suspended garden awards. As a result, and for only this year, two medals will be award in this area. Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

‘Line Drawing’

'Line Drawing' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2009). Seedling #IP-159S2. CA, 14" (36 cm). Midseason bloom. Standards white ground lined dark blue; style arms deep blue; falls white ground, dark blue lines overall, intense blue stitched edge, green-gold dotted signal. 'Like Clockwork' X seedling #FP-265U, 'Foggy Days' sibling. Bay View 2009.

 

‘Corralitos Creek’

'Corralitos Creek' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2013) Seedling #MP-163A4. CA, 14" (36 cm). Late midseason bloom. Standards white, slight blue at distal edge; style arms dark blue; falls white, blue line radiates from signal to deep blue edge, deep blue halo signal. Seedling #KP-155L: ('Da Vinci Code' x seedling #IP-156S3: ('Foggy Days' x seedling #GP-404K3: ('Bar Code' x seedling #EP-153C2: ('Ocean Blue' x 'Star of Evening')))) X seedling #KP-154, 'Costanoa' sibling. Bay View 2013.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including award of merit and honorable mention, will be published in the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2021 Knowlton Medal Winners

'BANDED ROSE' and 'GRAPENUT'

The Knowlton Medal is restricted to border bearded (BB) irises. It is named in honor of Harold W. Knowlton (1888-1968) of Auburndale, Massachusetts, a tireless promoter of the border bearded class of irises. Bennett Jones wrote in The World of Irises: "Harold Knowlton was among the first to make deliberate selections of smaller plants. Two of his 1950 introductions, ‘Pearl Cup’ and ‘Cricket’... display the desirable features we still seek in modern border irises." 

Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic last year, the American Iris Society Board of Directors suspended garden awards. As a result, and for only this year, two medals will be award in this area. Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

'BANDED ROSE' (J. T. Aitken)

'Banded Rose' (J. Terry Aitken, R. 2011) Seedling #04T30B. BB, 24 (61 cm), Late midseason bloom. Standards copper-rose; falls light peach wash at hafts blending to pale cream around orange beards, 7/8" band of copper-rose. 'Banded Gold' sibling. Salmon Creek 2011. 

'GRAPENUT' (Michael Sutton)

'Grapenut' (Michael Sutton, R. 2012) Seedling #W-999-A. BB, 24 (61 cm). Midseason to very late bloom. Standards tan, dark purple midribs; style arms tan, purple stigmatic lip; falls dark violet, near black, lighter at edge; beards beach brown; ruffled. 'Secret Service' X 'Midnight Thunder'. Sutton 2013.

The World of Irises blog will be posting classification medal winners as soon as the hybridizers are notified. The entire list of winners, including award of merit and honorable mention, will be published in the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

Re-plant at Smokin Heights 2021/22

By Mel Schiller

During our last blog post in January 2021, we were in the middle of digging and trimming irises and getting ready for re-plant in South Australia.

We have now completely finished re-plant for this season. Give it a few months and standard dwarf bearded irises will be blooming. It is crazy how fast the days are going by.

This past season we were not overly happy with a section of the iris field and the way rhizomes were growing. We shifted fresh soil from around our property into this area. 

Once the soil was smoothed over our dog Aura inspected it.

The soil consisted of top soil with some clay for added benefit to rhizomes. At planting time we also top dress fertilizer so that it is worked into the soil prior to planting.

 

We completed trimming iris fans by the time the soil was ready to plant in. Rainfall has been extremely low so we needed to water the ground by hand to get some moisture in before tilling could be done.

Once the ground is prepared we lay water drip line down to work as a guide to get rows planted straight.

 

Mel plants the field while Bailey organizes all rhizomes into categories to reflect our catalogue. This makes varieties so much easier to find!

We plant all the irises by hand. We cannot plant rhizomes on the surface because the searing hot sun will scald and burn them. We get much better results if each rhizome is pushed into the ground tip first and the soil smoothed out behind the rhizome. The rhizome is around 1 cm under dirt.  We cut old venetian blinds into pieces for labels or plastic display tags.  Venetian labels are written with Hobbytex (an Australian-made craft paint that comes in a ballpoint tube) and the plastic tags with pencil. 

Because the ground hasn't had water on it for many months the soil becomes hydrophobic. Water from the dripline system eventually gets moisture into the ground. 

This field is now home to tall bearded irises only. The other varieties are elsewhere on the property this season! We ran out of room.......😏

We place rows of water dripline about a foot apart, with a wider walkway between rows. This season we planted each variety of iris 2 rhizomes wide, staggering as we go.  

Each row was then top dressed with a pre-emergent herbicide and we timed it beautifully. Shortly after we received some much needed rain which fell at exactly the right time. The irises and pre-emergent were watered in by rainfall. The pre-emergent stops germination of self-seeding weeds by putting a barrier on the soil. Since irises are not germinating, the pre-emergent does not affect them in any way. 

Sunrise is an especially beautiful time of day. Colours of the new day are gorgeous and there are few noises except birdlife and the surrounding animals. I find it an important way to start my day!

My eldest son and brother to Bailey working up the area where we needed more room for irises....😜

Bailey is now working on this season's catalogue and he will be starting to update the website shortly. With bloom around 3 months away time is flying by and the gardens still need to be maintained. Keep an eye on our Facebook page "Smokin Heights" for regular updates and to follow our bloom season. 

 

An Iris Journal Entry from Down Under!

By Mel Schiller

The sting of summer is about to hit Southern Australia. At this time of year it is important for us to water our garden beds as things dry out very quick. We have not had decent rain for weeks, but we also have not had excessively hot weather either, which is a blessing! 

The iris are doing really well. We are so ever grateful that our business has thrived in these unprecedented times and people have been using their time to get out in the garden and move on and forward with life. Iris are a fantastic plant to have in Australia for their hardiness and the fact that they do not require massive amounts of water. 

As we go into January 2021 we look ahead at the work that is yet to be done to complete the 2020 iris season. With 40 plus degree Celsius days (104 F) for the next 3 months, usually next to no rain and the ground becoming rock hard, we reserve our early evenings to dig orders, and get them washed ready to ship out. 

Tasmania and Western Australia require a special permit to allow rhizome into these states, and through Covid shut downs we had a delay in receiving our certification. Onward and upwards we are currently digging these orders and preparing them for shipment. 

We are also walking the fields daily to check for seed pod ripeness. Once we see cracks appearing on the pods, we collect and split open the pods to let the seed dry out. These will be planted in April. 

A week before Christmas the roses were dead headed and the garden beds have a general prune and tidy up with a spot of weeding as well. We do not go over the entire field and remove the dead iris bloom stems, as this is too time consuming. This will be done at replant time at the end of February. 

Before

After

Bailey is studying chemical engineering at the university and Mel works a 30-hour week in hospitality.  Time management is a must to achieve everything we set out to do. Our love of iris drive us forward to reaching our goals. 

                                                    'Magic Madness' (B Schiller 19) TB

We are starting to look at the iris which will be introduced next season, and those that will be included in the next seasons catalogue. Bailey works on the catalogue that we produce between Uni studies. 

We successfully imported iris from America in September and look forward to them coming out of the Australian Quarantine Facility sometime in the next 6 weeks.  They are looking fantastic!

The field replant will begin in March with some iris being taken out of the field and planted elsewhere to recover and other varieties being added for sale next season.

We sincerely hope 2021 is super kind to everyone and that we all grow and evolve to achieve our own goals. We thank you for taking the time to follow us on Facebook and thank Bryce for allowing us to be part of his blogging team. He does such a wonderful job of keeping us updated and organized. 

Here is a sneak peak of what we are thinking of introducing next season. Mel and Bailey x

E11-1

                                    E37-1

                                                                        D50-1

                                      E9-1

Smokin Heights Hot Sellers so far for Season 20/21

 By Mel Schiller

Wow what a year so far and it isn't over yet! 

In my lifetime I think this year would have to be the windiest by far and as a tall bearded iris grower it spells disaster, especially living on a hilltop. Oh the challenges....I must say, as I type this blog, that we had a forecast of 8mm of rain yesterday and overnight we received much more....27mm.....the weather patterns are all over the place.

Anyway as we are in full swing with our iris season, time spent hybridizing has been down as it has been too wet--I never thought I would say that! Surprisingly the iris are coping well with the extra heavenly water we are receiving. The bloom stems are above and beyond normal this year. We are noticing also that the registered varieties are blooming not according to their registrations. Things that bloom early are blooming mid to late. Late bloomers are blooming mid season; all of this has never happened, until this year!

As the orders are coming in, we are noticing a pattern among purchases. Arils are among the top selling varieties this year and, of course, the broken coloured varieties too. 

As it stands here are our top 10 bearded iris for this season.

10. 'Diamonds and Rubies' (Blyth 14) TB What a statement this iris creates!

9. 'Eyes On You' (Black 12) OGB (1/2 Bred) An easing growing Aril variety.

8. 'Spiced Tiger' (Kasperek 96) TB A glowing broken coloured iris. We love it!

7. 'Line Drive' (M Sutton 07) IB A fabulous lined Intermediate iris: it is so pleasing to the eye!

6. 'Rim Of Fire' (Sutton 11) TB An extremely popular iris with that fiery red band on the falls.

5. 'Wicked Good' (Black 12) TB A beautiful blue and black bi-colour iris. 

4. 'Lancer' (Shockey 95) OGB A nice contrast in colour. 

3. 'Nigerian Raspberry' (Kasperek 95) TB Oh so pretty!

2. 'Serengeti Spaghetti' (Kasperek 99) TB An easy growing variety. 

1. 'Sand Dancer '(Tasco 10) OGB A favourite of ours and it is oh so different.

It is great to see so many people enjoying their gardens and wanting to make an impact with the bearded iris being a highlight to there garden. We personally love to plant iris with roses, lavender, alstroemeria, snap dragons, and aquilegias.

We are mid season at the moment and have met so many new people to iris. We hope you all continue with your love of gardening and creating a pleasant space for wind down time from this ever hectic, anxious world we now live in. Until next time....Happy Gardening 💜