The American Iris Society Announces the 2023 C. G. White Medal Winner

'BOLD AWAKENING'

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 'Bold Awakening'

photo by Howie Dash

'Bold Awakening' (Richard Tasco, 2016) Seedling 11-AB-02-02. Height 33 in. (84 cm), Early, midseason, late bloom. Standards magenta-rose, veined darker; style arms edged maize, orange-brick red ridge and crest; Falls brick red, veined darker, slight orange glow around oval shaped dark burgundy-black signal; beard hairs based maize, squirrel brown tips. ('Aztec Prince' x seedling 04-AB-03-09: ('Bagdad’s Folly' x 'Energizer')) X 'Exotic Treasure'. Introduced by Superstition Iris Gardens in 2016. 

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.