The American Iris Society Announces the 2021 Wister Medal Winners

'FOOTBALL HERO' - 'DON'T DOUBT DALTON'

'BELLE FILLE' - 'VOLCANIC GLOW' 

'BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS' - 'DON'T STOP BELIEVING' 

The Wister Medal is restricted to tall bearded (TB) irises. It is named in honor of John C. Wister (1887-1982). Three medals are awarded each year. Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic last year, the American Iris Society Board of Directors suspended garden awards. As a result, and for only this year, six medals will be award in this area. Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

John C. Wister led the organizing meeting that created the American Iris Society and became its first president, a position he held for fourteen years. He guided the society through its formative years. He was widely recognized as a man of rare management skill, leadership ability, and the highest ethical standards. R. S. Sturtevant wrote of him: "Probably few current members realize that the AIS started through the efforts and initiative of one man, John C. Wister...."

'FOOTBALL HERO' (Lynda Miller)

'Football Hero' (Lynda Miller, R. 2014). Seedling# 8010A. TB, 36" (91 cm). Midseason bloom. Standards butter yellow; style arms same, accented violet; falls plum-purple, pale smoky orchid edged; beards gold; slight musky fragrance. 'Hoosier Dome' X 'Saturn'. Salmon Creek 2015.

'DON'T DOUBT DALTON' (Tom Burseen)

'Don't Doubt Dalton' (Tom Burseen, R. 2014). Seedling# 011-297A. TB, 35" (89 cm). Early to late bloom. Standards pure white, red-purple random splattering; style arms white, washed gold; falls pure white, yellow-gold washed hafts, random dark purple splatters; beards poppy orange (RHS 32A), tattered and feathered white horns, gold stems; flared and ruffled; slight sweet fragrance. 'Miles Keith' X seedling# 09-79: (seedling# 07-167: ('Sammie's Jammies' x 'Enchanter') x 'McSeedman Sees Red'). Burseen 2015.

'BELLE FILLE' (Marky Smith)

'Belle Fille' (Marky Smith, R. 2011). Seedling 08-05B. TB, 34" (86 cm). Early to late bloom. Standards hyacinth violet (RHS 87A), primrose ruffled edge and base; style arms cream edged and rimmed yellow, crests lilac touched yellow; falls Vatican purple (83A), thin cream edge, cream white area surrounding beard, rudimentary luminata cream veining just below white heart, surrounded in turn by 1/4" bright yellow ring bleeding out to brown shoulder, small white dart below beard; beards white base, hairs tipped yellow at end becoming solid golden poppy-orange (25A) in throat; heavily ruffled, luminata pattern; pronounced sweet fragrance. Seedling 06-23L. Salmon Creek 2015.

'VOLCANIC GLOW' (Keith Keppel)

'Volcanic Glow' (Keith Keppel, R. 2011) Seedling 05-78B. TB, 36" (91 cm), Midseason bloom. Standards aureolin (M&P 10-L-2), central area flushed cedarwood (6-G-10); style arms aureolin, slight cedarwood flush; falls Zanzibar red (8-L-5), velvety wash, narrow aureolin edge; white heart and dart below beard, heart edged bright golden lemon (9-L-2/3); beards white base, tips golden lemon; luminata. 'Montmartre' X 'Lip Service'. Keppel 2012.

'BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS' (Paul Black)

'Bluebird Of Happiness' (Paul Black, R. 2011). Seedling# P218B. TB, 45" (114 cm). Midseason to very late bloom. Standards dark base and midribs blending to mid blue edges, darker blue textured veins over upper 2/3; style arms mid blue; falls mid blue fading to pale blue, darker at edge, mid blue textured veins; beards orange; pronounced sweet fragrance. Blyth seedling# N24-5, 'Blue Rising' sibling X 'Paul Black'. Mid-America 2012.

'DON'T STOP BELIEVING' (Thomas Johnson)

'Don't Stop Believing' (Thomas Johnson, R. 2013) Seedling TA80A. TB, 42 (107 cm). Late bloom. Standards and style arms clear mid pink; falls milk glass white, pink hafts and edge; beards salmon-pink in middle, lilac-blue end; sweet fragrance; ruffled; lightly laced. Seedling TW3A: ('Ballet Royale' x 'Corps de Ballet') X 'Secret Affair'. Mid-America 2013.

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 in the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The American Iris Society Announces the 2021 Dykes Medal Winners

'DARING DECEPTION' and ‘RECKLESS ABANDON’ 

First awarded in 1927, the Dykes Medal is the highest award of the American Iris Society (AIS). It is named for William Rickatson Dykes (1877-1925), and is awarded to no more than one iris per year.* Irises are eligible as a Dykes medal candidate for three years following the winning of a classification medal. Only AIS registered judges may vote.

*Editor’s Note: Due to the pandemic last year, the American Iris Society Board of directors suspended garden awards. As a result, and only for this year, two medals will be awarded in each area. Previous awards winners can be found at https://wiki.irises.org/Main/InfoAwards.

Tall bearded iris 'DARING DECEPTION' (Thomas Johnson) image by Paul Black

'Daring Deception' (Thomas Johnson, R. 2012). Seedling#!TB127B. TB, 35" (89 cm). Midseason bloom. Standards white, light violet wash up midrib; style arms white; falls plush violet, wide white band, white spray on either side of beard; beards tangerine; slight fragrance. 'By Jeeves' X Blyth seedling# O77-A: ('Hold My Hand' x 'Brave Face'). Mid-America 2012. 

Tall bearded iris ‘RECKLESS ABANDON’ (Keith Keppel)

'Reckless Abandon' (Keith Keppel, R. 2009). Seedling 04-147A. TB, 38" (97 cm). Midseason bloom. Standards center sulphur to citron yellow (M&P 10-J-1/2) changing to warm white texture veined yellow toward outer portion, narrow 1/8" dandelion (9-L-4/5) edge; crests dandelion (9-L-4); falls burgundy black (much deeper than 56-H-12), large central area white to cream strongly veined burgundy black; beards solid deep chrome to cadmium yellow (9-L-7/8). Blyth seedling L304-1, 'Platinum Class' sibling, X 'Pirate Ahoy'. Keppel 2010. 

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 in the AIS website, the AIS Encyclopedia, and later in the AIS Bulletin, IRISES.

The Beginnings of Tall Bearded Irises

by Bob Pries

My first blog! I thought I might start off with some thoughts about another beginning which occurred about 200 years ago. For years I wondered what the first tall-bearded irises actually looked like. Here is what I've found.

Circa 1820, E. Van Berg of Neuenkirche, Germany and Marie-Guillaume de Bure of Paris, France began naming cultivated varieties from the bee crosses appearing in their gardens. Van Berg did not introduce his selections into commerce. On the other hand, De Bure is noted for the first named and introduced cultivar ‘Buriensis’---which he named after himself. It was said to have a plicata pattern similar to the later ‘Madame Chereau’ but larger with more rosy markings outlining the white flower.

Although considered an “amateur” in 1848, De Bure was said to have the largest collection of irises in France. The book “The World of Irises” (available through the American Iris Society Storefront) credits De Bure for setting in motion the train of events which led to all present-day iris societies. It makes me wonder, "How many bearded irises did De Bure have in his collection?" By 1830, De Bure’s work had inspired fellow Parisian Henri-Antoine Jacques, the horticulturalist famed for introducing the Bourbon Roses. Perhaps his only surviving cultivar is ‘Aurea.’ Jacques in turn, inspired Nicolas Lémon of nearby Belleville, France (which was later annexed into the city of Paris).

Lémon was noted for growing thousands of seedlings. He did not bother with hand pollination and was quite happy with the work the bees produced. Nonetheless in 1840 he put irises on the map by offering 100 varieties for sale to the public.

 

This plate appears within Portefeuille des horticulteurs. Vol 2 (1848) with a nine page description

Between 1840-1850, Lémon continued to offer hundreds of irises for sale each year. To find descriptions of these irises we must go to the French literature. I am greatly thankful to Sylvain Ruaud and other members of the Société Française des Iris et plantes Bulbeuses for providing links to these descriptions of the Lémon varieties. Readers can find these by going to Lémon’s hybridizer page in the Iris Encyclopedia where you will find lists of his cultivars and linked references. The following plates show more of Lemon’s irises.

This plate appears within Bulletin du Cercle Général dHorticulture (1856)

American plant catalogs of this period rarely gave descriptions of these bearded hybrids and usually only offered collections of fifty or one hundred “germanica” irises. Although these bearded hybrids were often referred to as Iris germanica, it is likely that all of them had only Iris pallida and Iris variegata in their backgrounds. Experimental breeding between the two species by Sir Michael Foster, (of Trinity College in Cambridge, England) showed this to be the case. Since both species had chromosome numbers of 2n=24, their offspring were all fertile with each other also. Germanica irises grown in gardens at the time were probably ‘Grandmas’ Blue Flags’ a sterile triploid.

It was probably not until about 1885-1890 that fertile tetraploid Iris germanica was collected from Amasia, Turkey and Foster started entering true germanica irises into breeding. Lémon’s irises were all diploid, while Foster's ‘Amas’ was tetraploid. Thus, the early diploid irises really formed a fertile family distinct from today’s tetraploid tall bearded. The Lémon hybrids had more affinity to today’s diploid miniature tall bearded than to our modern tall bearded. The few that remain of the earlier group provide a delicate charm and grace to modern landscapes. I would love to see more images of them in the Iris Encyclopedia.

The Classic MDBs

 by  Tom Waters

The world of dwarf and median irises was revolutionized in the 1950s when Paul Cook and Geddes Douglas crossed the dwarf species Iris pumila with tall bearded irises (TBs) to create what became known as standard dwarf bearded irises (SDBs). The new SDBs were not only lovely, varied, and useful garden plants in their own right; but they were fertile parents, leading to all sorts of new avenues for hybridizers.

Hybridizers soon tried crossing the SDBs back to both of the parent types, TBs and I. pumila. Crossing SDBs with TBs produced a whole new style of intermediate bearded irises (IBs), whereas crossing SDBs with I. pumila produced a new style of miniature dwarf bearded irises (MDBs).

'Bee Wings'
photo: El Hutchison

By ancestry, these new MDBs were 1/4 TB and 3/4 I. pumila. From I. pumila, they inherit daintiness, earliness of bloom, and floriferousness. The TB ancestry lends them a greater variety of color and pattern, and a bit more width and polish in flower form. Dwarf breeders and growers were delighted with these creations; and they became quickly popular, all but replacing the earlier dwarfs from I. lutescens breeding in just a decade or so.

'Alpine Lake'
photo: Tom Waters

The first MDB from SDB x I. pumila breeding to win the Caparne-Welch award was Alta Brown's 'Bee Wings' (Brown, 1959), which won the award in 1963.  By 1990, six others from this type of cross won the award. Especially notable among them were 'Zipper' (Sindt, 1978), a deep yellow with a stunning blue-violet beard, and 'Alpine Lake' (Willott, 1980), a soft near-white with a diffuse blue spot. I refer to these as "classic" MDBs, because they set the standard for the class during this time of great progress and interest.

'Zipper'
photo: Jeanette Graham

Another popular type of MDB was produced by crossing SDBs with each other and selecting irises that were small enough to fall under the height limit of the MDB class (currently 8 inches). These had the advantage of showing all the color patterns of TBs, including plicata and tangerine pink. Although both types were popular, hybridizers breeding specifically for MDBs preferred the SDB x I. pumila cross, which produced a much greater proportion of early-blooming, MDB-sized seedlings.

After 1990, the SDB x I. pumila cross gradually fell out of fashion, with most of the new MDBs coming from SDB x SDB breeding. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the SDBs had been steadily progressing in color, pattern, and form; and the classic MDBs from SDB x I. pumila could not really keep up. Second, fewer breeders were breeding specifically for MDBs and growing I. pumila for that purpose. Most breeders were instead working with their established SDB lines, which sometimes produce MDB-sized plants "by accident," as it were. So the SDB x SDB cross would do double duty, producing both SDBs and MDBs.

'Wee Dragons'
photo: Jeanette Graham

Classic MDBs are still being produced, however. My favorite recent one is Lynda Miller's 'Wee Dragons' (Miller, 2017). The recent Caparne-Welch winner 'Kayla's Song' (D. Spoon, 2008) is of complicated ancestry, but its overall appearance makes it likely that it too is 3/4 I. pumila and belongs in this category.

Although it is clear that the MDBs from SDB x SDB breeding will continue to dominate the class with their modern form and exciting color patterns, the classics should not be completely forgotten. The advantages of early bloom and guaranteed dainty size in all gardens should not be set aside too quickly. And since this type of cross is not often made these days, we don't have a very full picture of its potential when modern SDBs are involved.

'Kayla's Song'
photo: Ginny Spoon

Although my own hybridizing interests are focused elsewhere, I make some SDB x I. pumila crosses each year and donate the seeds to the Dwarf Iris Society seed sale, in the hopes of encouraging interest in the classic MDB cross.

If you grow MDBs, keep your eye out for classic MDBs that have I. pumila or one of its cultivars as a parent. They will delight you with their early bloom and daintier looks.