Hybridizers

John Taylor, the winner of the AIS Hybridizers Medal
Congratulations to John Taylor, our Louisiana Iris hybridizer from Rainbow Ridge Nursery in Dural, NSW, Australia. Taylor has been voted the Hybridizer Medal of the American Iris Society at their Fall Board Meeting.
 
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Category: Hybridizers

Marvin Granger who hybridized many "double" and "cartwheel" Louisiana Irises.

It would take a book-length article to write about and describe all the things and people that influence hybridizing of the Louisiana iris. It all began after World War II, around 1946 or a little later, when I got into the field of serious hybridizing. My sister and I had been collecting the blue GC's (I.giganticaerulea) whose main habitat was in the marshes of Cameron Parish, that was a short drive south of Lake Charles, Louisiana in Calcasieu Parish.

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Category: Hybridizers

Marvin Granger is honored by the American Iris Society with the award of the Distinguished Hybridizer Award

Congratulations to Marvin Granger of Lake Charles, Louisiana, who was selected at the fall board meeting of the American Iris Society to receive the Distinguished Hybridizer Medal at their annual convention in Memphis, Tennessee, this April. This is quite an honor and especially so for a hybridizer of one of the 'other irises' like Louisianas.

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Category: Hybridizers

Wayland Rudkin, a hybridizer of Louisiana Irises and Tall Bearded Irises

When I graduated from Tracy Hi in 1942 I had no idea I would be hybridizing irises when I was 80. However, there should have been some clues. The Busch and Lomb Science Award was given to me for taking four years of science classes. My father, wanting to teach me about the birds and bees, arranged to get me on a field trip with a almond grower and his daughter. We went to the University of California at Davis to learn how to pollinate fruit trees.

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A picture of the Louisiana Iris 'Dr. Dormon' hybridized by Sidney Conger

by Ron Killingsworth ca Fall 2007

Sidney Conger was born in July 1924, in his grandparent's home at Arcadia, La. He died in August 1993, in Houston, Texas, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Ruston, La. Sidney's wife of almost 40 years, Bette Lee Davis Conger, now resides near her daughter in Maryland. Sidney and Bette Lee had two boys and a girl and the children were raised in the family home in Arcadia.

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Category: Hybridizers