The new Dykes is Bottle Rocket. Reckless Abandon is first runner-up.......

Congratulations to Sutton and Keppel!

http://www.irises.org/wp-conte...

Wow....Reckless Abandon and Sharp Dressed Man came so close. Both deserve it in my eyes, but so does Bottle Rocket.

I can see BOTTLE ROCKET getting it for the color combo, and congrats to Sutton, but it wasn't to my taste (ditto RECKLESS ABANDON). Just goes to show "different strokes for different folks" as my BIL likes to say!

I would have voted for Reckless Abandon. I haven't seen Bottle Rocket. I'm always pleased when Keppel wins a Dykes but am happy for Sutton.

Bottle Rocket is a very popular iris with buyers so I am glad it is getting medal recognition as well. Happy to see Keith Keppel had lots of iris represented in all the categories. Congrats to Paul Black for his many awards and honorable mentions too. And Ghio certainly has a lock on the CPI categories with those beautiful creations of his. Happy to see Chad Harris' species Lakeside Ghost won as well. It is a really cool looking iris.

Mike Sutton's Grapenut received an Award of Merit, too.

And it deserves it! That is an amazing grower.

Congrats to the winner!! My fav was Reckless Abandon too.

I love a pretty face, but I always want a great plant habit beneath that bloom too.

Not to take away from the Dykes accomplishment, but I took a look at the Wisteria winners, and I was pleased to see that AUTUMN EXPLOSION (thanks, Rob! ) was the top winner there, and BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS (which I just received) was a runner-up. Maybe AUTUMN EXPLOSION will be a future Dykes Medal winner?

Bluebird of Happiness is actually my favorite of all the 2019 Dykes and Wister winners. I planted it this summer and can hardly wait for it to bloom for me.

Bluebird of Happiness is actually my favorite of all the 2019 Dykes and Wister winners. I planted it this summer and can hardly wait for it to bloom for me.

As for Bottle Rocket, while I adore its colors, the photos in the database reveal its standards can grow every which way. I prefer seeing some consistency of form. Maybe it could be bred with a white iris of good form to get the same colors but improved form.

Why a white iris. That color hides all sorts of things.

I thought white was usually double recessive. It generally is in other organisms. Most plant breeders purposly try to breed a strain of plants to be double recessive white, in order to assist in other hybridization efforts. Colors are generally dominant over whites. And darker colors dominant over lighter colors. Are iris an exception to that rule?

For example, if you go to the description for White Knight here: http://wiki.irises.org/TbUthru...: ight you'll see it described as homozygous recessive white (w1, w1).

Lucy I have done a bit more reading today and this article: http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Heredi... was an eyeopener to me, teaching me that there are indeed dominant white genes in iris, which are different than their recessive white genes. Very interesting. Thanks for tipping me off to this. Mendel would have been surprised, because his white-flowering strain of pea flowers was always recessive. So is white in soybean flowers, violets, and others.

Thanks for the acorn, Evelyn!

OH, my! It was 5 acorns!