2019 Payne Medal

The American Iris Society

Announces

The Payne Medals 2019

'Cascade Rain'

'Indigo Angel'

The 2019 Payne Medal is a tie:

'Cascade Rain'--image by Chad Harris

'Cascade Rain' (Chad Harris, R. 2007) Sdlg. 02JH1. JI (3 F.), 40" (102 cm), Midseason late bloom. Standards white sharply edged purple (RHS 86A), lightly stippled same; style arms white edged light blue-violet (93D), large upright crest washed same blue-violet; Falls white ground heavily stippled blue violet (89B), blue violet wash covering ¾ of petal intensifying to sharp ¼? blue violet edge, yellow green (2A) signal. 'Hekiun' X 'Peacock Strut'. Aitken, Mt. Pleasant 2008. Award of Merit 2015

'Indigo Angel'--image by Ensata Gardens

'Indigo Angel' (Bob Bauer and John Coble, R. 2011) Sdlg. J02H-1. JI (6 F.), 36 (91 cm), Midseason bloom. Style arms dark purple, slight light rim on crests, upright form; Falls white ground sanded with blue-violet halo and veins, veins turning red-violet at ends fading into red-violet edges, white wire rim. 'Night Angel X 'Sapphire Crown'. Ensata 2011. Honorable Mention 2014, Award of Merit 2017

This medal is restricted to Japanese irises (JI). It is named in honor of W. Arlie Payne (1881-1971). W. Arlie Payne was at first interested in peonies, but in the late 1920's, he "discovered" Japanese irises. He started hybridizing Japanese in irises in 1932. Over the next three and a half decades, he raised many thousands of seedlings. One of the most exceptional aspects of his breeding program was that it was developed in the early years using only six cultivars of the Edo type. Payne took line breeding to a new level of intensity. The American Iris Society awarded Arlie Payne its coveted Hybridizers Medal in 1964. When he died at the age of 90, in 1971, he was universally revered as the world's premier breeder of Japanese irises.

The World of Irises blog will be posting once a day all of the medal winners. The entire list of winners can be found at the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.