The American Iris Society Announces the 2025 Sydney B. Mitchell Medal Winner

'OCEAN ROAR' and 'WILDER RANCH' (tie)

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 'Ocean Roar'

photo by Joe Ghio

'Ocean Roar' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2017). Seedling# QPP-99II. CA, 13" (33 cm), Early midseason bloom. Standards smooth deep blue-purple; style arms blue-purple; falls same, dime sized purple signal surrounded by wide white halo, some lines radiating from signal. Seedling# NP-75F: ('Caught in the Wind' x 'Fresh Eyes') X seedling# NP-63L, 'Conga Line' pod parent sibling. Bay View 2017

Pacific Coast Native iris 'Wilder Ranch'
photo by Joe Ghio

'Wilder Ranch' (Joseph Ghio, R. 2013) Seedling# KP-166N3. CA, 12" (30 cm). Late midseason bloom. Standards and style arms henna; falls toast, blue edge, signal neon violet. Seedling# HP-163D, 'Mandalay Bay' sibling X seedling# IP-139H2, 'Silent Witness' sibling. Bay View 2013. 

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.