The American Iris Society Announces the 2023 Payne Medal Winner

'KOTO HARP STRINGS'

The Payne Medal is restricted to Japanese irises (JI). It is named in honor of W. Arlie Payne (1881-1971). W. Arlie Payne was at first especially interested in peonies, but in the late 1920s, he "discovered" Japanese irises. He started hybridizing Japanese 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.

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

Japanese iris ‘Koto Harp Strings’
Photo by Neil Houghton

'Koto Harp Strings' (Chad Harris, R. 2015) Seedling 08JE1. JI (6 falls), Height 48 in. (122 cm), Very late bloom. Style arms white, flared upright white crest edged violet-blue; Falls violet-blue, predominant sharp white ray pattern to within ¼˝ of edge forming a distinct rim, small soft yellow signal. 'Night Angel' X 'Frosted Intrigue'. Introduced by Mt. Pleasant Iris Gardens 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 Award of Merit and Honorable Mention, will be published on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.