The American Iris Society Announces the 2024 Sass Medal Winner

'LAKOTA'

The Sass Medal is restricted to intermediate bearded (IB) irises. It is named in honor of Hans Sass (1868-1949) and Jacob Sass (1872-1945). They bred irises, peonies, daylilies, lilacs, gladiolus, lilies and other garden plants. When they became charter members of the AIS, they had been breeding irises
for more than a decade. Their irises were famous for being strong growers because they used 'Amas' and I. trojana as tetraploid stud irises instead of the tender I. mesopotamica and I. cypriana.

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

Intermediate Bearded Iris 'Lakota'
photo by Judy Schneider

'Lakota' (Marky Smith, R. 2013) Seedling #09-16B. IB, 23" (58 cm), Early to late midseason bloom. Standards grey-orange (RHS 168D) petal edges, centers and rib lavender, greyer tan 86D; style arms grey-orange (167D); falls petal rims grey-orange, upper fall and shoulders darker smoke-orange (167B), fine veins flaring from beard, lower half of center violet, greyer than 80C, grey-orange veining ending in orange rims; beards greyed red-orange (180B); ruffled; luminata plicata. 'Musician' X 'Amusing'. Salmon Creek 2014.

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.