The American Iris Society Announces the 2025 C. G. White Medal Winner

 'Chihuahua Night'

Since 1993, the Clarence G. White Memorial Medal has been awarded to the best arilbred iris with 1/2 or more aril ancestry. When Clarence G. White began his work with aril irises, little was known about the complexity of iris genetics. White assembled the largest collection of aril irises in the world and conducted thousands of breeding experiments to obtain viable, fertile seedlings. One of his goals was to develop strong, pure Oncocylus hybrids.

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

Arilbred iris 'Chihuahua Night'
photo by Howard Dash

'Chihuahua Night' (Howard Dash, R. 2018). Seedling ADG-15-04-01. AB (OGB), 32" (81 cm). Early to midseason bloom. Standards lilac, plum veining, golden at base; style arms golden, bronzed lilac crests; falls creamy white, heavily veined and stippled dark plum lighter at rim, small plum-black signal; beards golden mustard. 'Garnettville' X 'Damfino'. Picacho Mountain Iris 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.