Williamson-White Medal 2018

The American Iris Society

Announces

The 2018 Williamson-White Medal

'Holiday In Mexico'

'Holiday In Mexico'--image by Riley Probst

'Holiday In Mexico' (Riley Probst, R. 2011) has an early midseason bloom period. Standards and style arms bright yellow; falls flared, white ground veined bright red-purple extending to 1/8"yellow edge; beards white, yellow in throat; slight fragrance. 'Mini Wabash' X 'Welch's Reward'. Fleur de Lis 2012.

This 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 1950's, Alice White of Hemet, California began a crusade to gain recognition of 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.

The World of Irises blog will be posting once a day the other medal winners. The entire list of winners can be found at http://irises.org/About_Irises/Awards_Surveys/AIS_Awards.html, the AIS Encyclopedia and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES. Pictures can be found at http://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards2018.