Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The American Iris Society Announces the 2023 Williamson-White Medal Winner

 'BLACK CHERRY SORBET'

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.

Miniature tall bearded iris 'BLACK CHERRY SORBET'
photo by Heather Haley

'Black Cherry Sorbet' (Chad Harris, R. 2015) Seedling 08MTB2. MTB, 22" (56 cm). Early bloom. Standards black cherry-red (RHS 183A); style arms buckskin tan (164B); falls orchid (186C) ground heavily veined black cherry-red (187A); beards bright lemon yellow (13A); slight spicy fragrance. 'Redrock Princess' X 'Butterscotch Wine'. Introduced by Mount Pleasant Iris Farm in 2016.

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

No comments:

Post a Comment