The American Iris Society Announces the 2024 DeBaillon Medal Winner

  'EYES WIDE OPEN'

The DeBaillon Medal is restricted to Louisiana (LA) irises. It is named in honor of Mary Swords DeBaillon (1888-1940). Mary DeBaillon realized how varied Louisiana irises were and what lovely garden plants they were. Mary DeBaillon amassed the largest collection of Louisiana irises in the world. She was tireless in promoting these irises as good garden plants and in encouraging any who would listen to grow them. She gained considerable fame as a naturalist and native plant collector.

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

Louisiana iris 'Eyes Wide Open'
photo by Howard Dash

'Eyes Wide Open' (Heather Pryor, R. 2006). Seedling 49/98-GHP. LA, 39" (99 cm), Midseason bloom. Standards creamy white, cyclamen blush at 1/4" edge, white rim; style arms pastel pink, lemon midrib, base and ends; falls medium cyclamen pink, white rim; signals very large yellow blotch, red eyeliner surround on falls only; recurved, triangular form; sweet fragrance. Seedling 11/94-A: ('Lemon Sorbet' x seedling 35/92-A: ('Volcanic Wildfire' x 'Spanish Ballet')) X 'Our Dorothy'. Introduced by Iris City 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 on the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.