The American Iris Society Announces the 2025 Sass Medal Winner

 'FRIED GREEN TOMATOES '

The Sass Medal is restricted to intermediate bearded (IB) irises. It is named in honor of Hans Sass (1868-1949) and Jacob Sass (1872-1945). They bred irises, peonies, daylilies, lilacs, gladiolus, lilies and other garden plants. When they became charter members of the AIS, they had been breeding irises
for more than a decade. Their irises were famous for being strong growers because they used 'Amas' and I. trojana as tetraploid stud irises instead of the tender I. mesopotamica and I. cypriana.

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

Intermediate Bearded Iris 'Fried Green Tomatoes'

photo by Hugh Stout

'Fried Green Tomatoes' (Hugh Stout, R. 2019). Seedling SN11E. IB, 25" (64 cm), Early midseason bloom. Standards lemon chiffon, cream at base; style arms cream; falls citron yellow, lighter toward edge, darker olive green veining around beards, light cream edge; beards light lavender, hairs tipped saffron gold; ruffled; slight musky fragrance. Seedling DX25C: ('Zing Me' x 'Killarney Green') X unknown. Introduced by Stout Gardens 2019.

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.