The American Iris Society
Announces
The Randolph-Perry Medal 2018
‘Take-No-Sato’
'Take-No-Sato'--image by Brock Heilman
'Take-No-Sato' (Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, R. 2008)
SPEC-X (Pseudata); 45" (114 cm), Midseason bloom. Standards white brushed
and veined red violet, white rim, small; style arms and Falls white veined red
violet; signal deep yellow surrounded by deep red-violet eyelash markings. Translation:
"Village of Bamboo". Honorable Mention 2013. Award of Merit 2015.
This medal is restricted to interspecies irises (SPEC-X).
It is named in honor of Dr. L. F. Randolph (1894-1980) and Amos Perry (1871-1953).
Dr. L. F. Randolph, or "Fitz" as he was
affectionately called by his many friends and associates, Dr. Randolph was chairman of the AIS Scientific Committee
from 1945 to 1956. The work he and his students Jyotirmay Mitra and Katherine Heinig did
on iris chromosomes produced many published monographs and provide the basis of our
scientific understanding of the genus. He conducted a number of extensive iris species collection
expeditions and brought back new species and many new forms of other iris species,
especially of I pumila.
Amos Perry was born into a family of English nurserymen. Perry
was one of the first hybridizers to use the tetraploid irises 'Amas,' I trojana, I. mesopotamica
and I cypriana. He introduced scores of new bearded cultivars, but he was more
interested in Siberian irises and iris species. He probably created more new hybrid
interspecies irises than any other iris breeder. His new hybrid irises often had names that
indicated their species parentage, such as 'Chrysogana' (I. chrysographes x I. bulleyana); 'Tebract'
(I tenax x I. bracteata); 'Longsib' (I. longipetala x I. siberica); and 'Chrysowigi' (I.
chrysographes x I hartwegi.
The World of Irises blog will be posting once a day all
of the medal winners. The entire list of winners can be found at http://irises.org/About_Irises/Awards_Surveys/AIS_Awards.html,
the AIS Encyclopedia and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES. Pictures can be
found at http://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards2018.
