The American Iris Society Announces the 2024 Sydney B. Mitchell Award Winner

'CAUGHT IN THE WIND'

The Mitchell Medal is restricted to Pacific Coast Native (PCN) irises. It is named in honor of Sydney B. Mitchell (1878-1951). Professor Sydney Mitchell was an educator. He became Acting Librarian at the University of California during WW I, and later founded and became first director of the Graduate School of Librarianship at that university. He was also one of the organizers of the American Iris Society.

Tom Craig wrote this of him: "Sydney looked upon plant breeding as a long term international effort in which individuals from all over the world should co-operate and add generation after generation to a real human achievement. He made me feel a real part of this and more particularly a part of a special work started by William Mohr and carried on by himself. Sydney generously gave flowers and plants of seedling for further encouragement with this work."

Mitchell was also interested in the native irises of the West Coast, and promoted them at every opportunity. He took great pride in the plantings of PCNs in his own garden. He had a large collection of various forms of Iris innominata and I. douglasiana. 

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

Pacific Coast Native Iris 'Caught In The Wind'
Photo by Leonine Iris

'Caught In The Wind' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2012) Seedling #LP-145B2. CA, 16" (41 cm). Early midseason bloom. Standards blue-violet, lighter blue edges; style arms dark blue-purple; Falls creamy white, petal edges lined blue violet; yellow blaze lined over with blue violet. 'Line Drawing' X 'This is It'. Introduced by Bay View Gardens in 2012.

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.