As some/most of you know; I am a nut for Sterling Innerst introductions. Why? Who really knows. He was the past president of my local iris society, Dykes medal winner, and I needed an excuse to try and limit my crazy iris expansion. So I decided that I would just collect his cultivars. Ok, try to just collect his cultivars. How is that working? Let's not go there!
So I did alot of research and talked to everyone in my local iris society (as well as the iris society in the Philadelphia area). I thought that because Region 3 was Sterling's home region that I would be able to find all of his introduction here and do so easily. No such luck. I did get alot of stories and I also wound up with all of his trophies. Well, almost all. I did not get the Dykes Medal. Bummer!
So I got about 15 trophies, from competions all over the world. All are in need of TLC. I have decided to get them back in shape (cleaned, buffed, shined, & repaired) and take pictures of them next to the blooms for which they were awarded. One award, did not have any information on it for what iris the award was given for nor the date; "Dr Loomis Award".
So I researched it and found nothing. No big deal. I will just get back to it. So I got back to it this week (I have had the trophies for about two years now). Well, I found what I was looking for! Terry Hunter of "Heritage Iris Blog" just posted a blurb on Sterling Innerst's "Tennessee Gentlemen" which won the Dr Loomis Award in 1994! Here is the link to his main page.
http://historiciris.blogspot.c...
Here is the link to the specific page.
http://historiciris.blogspot.c...
Here is a so so picture of the trophy. I need to get a better (dark) background to highlight it better.
