The American Iris Society Announces the 2024 William Mohr Medal Winner

'SIGNAL BUTTE'

The Mohr Medal is restricted to irises of one-quarter or more aril content that do not meet the more restrictive requirements of the Clarence G. White Medal.

It is named in honor of William A. Mohr (1871-1923). About ten years before his death, Mohr began working with irises. He obtained the tetraploid Asiatic species, as well as regelia and oncocyclus irises, and communicated with other iris hybridizers such as Ellen Sturtevant and Samuel Stillman Berry. The two greatest achievements of William Mohr's hybridizing programs are probably his plicatas and his innovative and beautiful arilbreds. His great plicatas are 'Los Angeles' and the iris that won the first American Dykes Medal, 'San Francisco.' Mohr's most important arilbred iris is the magnificent 'William Mohr.' 

Arilbred iris 'Signal Butte'

Photo by Riley Probst

'Signal Butte' (Richard Tasco, R. 2016). Seedling#. 11-AM-02-10. AB (OGB-), 23" (58 cm). Early to late bloom. Standards spectrum violet (RHS 82B), lightly veined; style arms cream-white, light spectrum violet sides and crest; falls spectrum violet, dime-sized black signal surrounded by red-plum wash; beard hairs based white, golden brown in throat and middle, white ends; slight sweet fragrance. 'Energizer' X 'Replicator'. Introduced by Superstition Iris Gardens 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 award of merit and honorable mention, will be published in the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.