The American Iris Society
Announces
The 2018 Williamson-White Medal
'Holiday In Mexico'
'Holiday In Mexico'--image by Riley Probst
'Holiday In Mexico' (Riley Probst, R. 2011) has an early
midseason bloom period. Standards and style arms bright yellow; falls flared,
white ground veined bright red-purple extending to 1/8"yellow edge; beards
white, yellow in throat; slight fragrance. 'Mini Wabash' X 'Welch's Reward'.
Fleur de Lis 2012.
This medal is restricted to miniature tall bearded (MTB)
irises. It is named in honor of E. B. Williamson (1877-1933), his daughter Mary
Williamson (1909-1987) and Alice White (1886-1969). Although others had
introduced irises that fit into the miniature tall bearded iris class before Williamson,
he and his daughter were the first to breed them as cultivars in a distinctive
class of irises. They were apparently byproducts of breeding for tall bearded
irises. In the early 1950's, Alice White of Hemet, California began a crusade
to gain recognition of the assets of these wonderful smaller irises. She
organized table iris robins and wrote many articles for the AIS Bulletin and
gardening magazines promoting their virtues.
The World of Irises blog will be posting once a day the
other 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.
