The American Iris Society Announces the 2025 Payne Medal Winner

  'PINK PLAYMATE'

The Payne Medal is restricted to Japanese irises (JI). It is named in honor of W. Arlie Payne (1881-1971). W. Arlie Payne was at first especially interested in peonies, but in the late 1920s, he "discovered" Japanese irises. He started hybridizing Japanese irises in 1932. Over the next three and a half decades, he raised many thousands of seedlings. One of the most exceptional aspects of his breeding program was that it was developed in the early years using only six cultivars of the Edo type. Payne took line breeding to a new level of intensity. The American Iris Society awarded Arlie Payne its coveted Hybridizers Medal in 1964. When he died at the age of 90, in 1971, he was universally revered as the world's premier breeder of Japanese irises.

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

Japanese Iris 'Pnk Playmate'

photo by Chad Harris

'Pink Playmate' (Chad Harris, R. 2017). Seedling# 08JH4. JI (6 falls), 24" (61 cm), Midseason bloom. Bright pink (RHS 75C) self, gold-yellow (12A) signal; full round, very ruffled form. 'Saigyozakura' X seedling# 00JF3: ('Saigyozakura' x 'Hime Kagami'). Mt. Pleasant 2018. 

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.