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AAS Award Recipients

Every year, All-America Selections (AAS) hosts an awards ceremony to honor two individuals who have given significantly to AAS. One award is the prestigious AAS Medallion of Honor, an award designed to recognize someone with a lifelong dedication to advancement in the field of horticulture. Another equally prestigious award is the Breeder’s Cup which was established in 2004 to recognize a breeder who has dramatically influenced horticulture by his or her work in bringing significant improvements to specific flower or vegetable classes.

AAS Breeder’s Cup

The All-America Selections Breeders Cup was established in 2004 to recognize a plant breeder who dramatically influenced horticulture by breeding new cultivars that brought significant improvements to those classes. All-America Selections is very proud to announce that the 2020 Breeder’s Cup Award recipient is Dr. Jianping (Ping) Ren, Sr. Plant Breeder at PanAmerican Seed Co. With 2020 being the 25th anniversary of Wave petunias, the timing of this award is quite significant and memorable.

Ping Ren earned her Ph.D. from the Plant Breeding Department at Cornell University where she worked on vegetable breeding two years before joining the flower industry.

Ping joined PanAmerican Seed in 2001 as a flower plant breeder. For the past 20 years, Ping has worked on Petunia, Calibrachoa, Gaillardia and Echinacea. There is a long list of about 150 vegetative and seed propagated varieties coming from Ping’s breeding, a number of which are the recipients of horticultural industry awards including All-America Selections.

The six varieties that have won AAS awards are: the first F1 Gaillardia Mesa Yellow (2010), Echinacea PowWow Wild Berry (2011), Cheyenne Spirit (2013), Sombrero Baja Burgundy (2019), Petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour (2015) and Wave Carmine Velour (2018). Many of these varieties have also earned multiple other industry awards.

In addition, Ping’s co-invention of the petunia green corolla (gc) allele gene has been broadly used in petunia breeding across the industry, resulting in the introduction of numerous unique colors of petunia associated with the gc allele. Ping’s outstanding work has significantly benefited and influenced our flower industry.

In recent years, Ping’s breeding has focused on Wave Petunia, Sombrero / Double Scoop and Artisan Echinacea.

Ping reports that she really enjoys her work and is always excited to develop new flowers that can add beauty to the world. She is extremely grateful for the encouragement, support, and teamwork from all her colleagues and friends who continue to enable her success. Finally, she wants to thank her family, especially her Mom, as all of her accomplishments are from her mom’s love and sacrifice.

“We feel very fortunate to have Ping Ren as a breeder at PanAmerican Seed. She has bred so many amazing products and has inspired and motivated everyone around her with her hard work, drive and creativity. She sets the bar for flower breeding very high indeed!” ~ PanAmerican President Anne Leventry

“It’s a great pleasure working with Ping in the Wave program. She is passionate, creative and always keeps first-of-mind that the products fulfill the promise of the Wave Brand performance. Her striving for excellence and the high expectations she sets for herself is motivation for those of us who have the good fortune to work with her. The AAS Breeder’s Cup is a well-deserved recognition for Ping.” ~ PanAmerican Seed Portfolio Manager Lisa Lacy

 

Previous AAS Breeders’ Cup Recipients

Year Name Company Flower or Vegetable
2004 Daigaku Takeshita Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. Flower
2005 Dr. Calvin Lamborn Magic Seed, Inc. Vegetable
2006 David Lemon Ecke Ranch Flower
2008 Dr. Masao Bessho Sakata Seed Corporation Flower
2009 Dr. J. Brent Loy University of New Hampshire Vegetable
2010 Todd Perkins Syngenta Flowers Flower
2011 Yosh Arimitsu Bodger Flower
2012 Dr. Paul Thomas Petoseed Co. Vegetable
2013 Robert L. Johnston, Jr. Johnny's Selected Seeds Vegetable
2014 Dr. Ellen Leue PanAmerican Seed Co. Flower
2015 Dr. Randy Gardner NCSU Vegetable
2016 Janika J. Eckert Johnny's Selected Seeds Vegetable
2018 Douglas Holden Ernst Benary Flowers
2020 Dr. Jianping (Ping) Ren PanAmerican Seed Flowers

AAS Medallion of Honor

All-America Selections is pleased to announce that for the first time ever, the 2019 Medallion of Honor was given to not just one, but two recipients who also just happen to be husband and wife.

This year’s recipients are Doug and Karen Weir-Jimerson.

Doug started his career at Better Homes & Gardens in 1976 and worked his way up to executive garden editor, serving that publication for more than three decades. As a freelance writer, Karen is the author of countless magazine stories and books, including 15 in the Better Homes and Gardens brand. Together, this dynamic duo established the first Better Home and Gardens Test Garden at their family farm outside Des Moines, Iowa. That garden is now located at the Meredith headquarters in downtown Des Moines. The Jimerson home and garden became a gathering place for other editors and writers to grow, photograph and observe new varieties and especially the AAS award-winning plants.  Doug and Karen were the editorial force of Garden.com, one of the first gardening e-commerce businesses in the 1990’s, where they frequently wrote about and sold AAS Winners. As the years progress, Doug and Karen are continuing their writing work via Studio G, a creative agency they formed that specializes in garden, pet and food editorial.

“The goal of every garden journalist is to help make home gardeners successful. That’s why I’ve spent much of my career promoting AAS award winners. Because these plants have performed well in trial gardens across North America, I can be confident that my readers will have success, too”–Doug Jimerson

“We have grown All-America Selections winners in our gardens for more than 30 years. It’s exciting to see the flower and vegetable varieties become popular, showing up in gardens across the country.” –Karen Weir-Jimerson

All-America Selections, the breeders, judges, board of directors and all the companies they represent, proudly salute two industry achievers who humbly and quietly have done so much for the industry, including the promotion of All-America Selections Winners. Congratulations Karen and Doug!

Previous AAS Medallion of Honor Recipients

Winner Year
James H. Franklin, Ph.D. 1936
Lester C. Morse unknown
Elizabeth Bodger unknown
Carl Cropp unknown
David Burpee 1945
Glenn M. Smith, Ph.D. 1945
Earl E. Wilde, Ph.D. 1949
Frank G. Cuthbertson 1952*
Paul Work, Ph. D. 1953
Schuyler Arnold 1954
James H. Burdett 1956
Charles L. Weddle 1958
Harm Drewes 1958
W. Ray Hastings 1959
Fred Statt 1959
Raymond H. Coulter 1961
Victor H. Boswell, Ph.D. 1961
Robert P. Meahl, Ph.D. 1963
James F. Harrington, Ph.D. 1964*
Carl L. Warren 1964
Holmes Bloomer 1964
Takeo Sakata 1965
Henry A. Jones, Ph.D. 1965
Winner Year
Elmer Twedt 1966*
Frank Reinelt 1967
Ian Sinclair 1968
George B. Park 1968
Ernst Benary 1968
Claude Hope 1968
John Mondry 1969
L.W. Corbett 1970
W. Atlee Burpee III 1971
Isabel Zucker 1972
Bruce Johnstone 1974
Al Kempf 1974
Jisaburo Takii 1974
Darrell Walker, Ph.D. 1974
Lyman White 1975
Harry Joy 1975
Henry M. Munger, Ph.D. 1976
Carl Dietz 1976
Howard Bodger 1977
John Holden 1977
Joseph Harris 1978
John McCabe 1978
Glenn A. Goldsmith 1979
Winner Year
Ralph Gould 1979
David S. Denholm 1979
John Waller 1979
Joseph Steinke 1980
Friedrich Benary 1980
Clinton E. Peterson, Ph.D. 1981
R. T. "Ronnie" German 1981
Fred A. Rath 1982
Warren H. Gabelman, Ph.D. 1983
Theodore C. Torrey 1983
Paul Thomas 1984
David Lemon 1985
John Scarchuk 1986
William John Park 1987
Paul Ledig 1988
Charles Kindsvater 1988
Lowell Ewart, Ph.D. 1989
G. Carl Ball 1991
Oved Shifriss, Ph.D. 1992
Yosh Arimitsu 1993
David Colegrave 1993
Rudolf Benary 1994
William Scott 1995
Winner Year
Klaus Neubner 1995
Jeannette Lowe 1996
John Gale 1997
Colen Wyatt, Ph.D. 1998
Mathillde Holtrop 1999
Corinne W. Willard 2000
Pieter van Zanten 2001
Jim Waltrip 2002
Al Gerace 2003
Jim W. Wilson 2004
Shunichiro Suda 2005
Anna Ball 2006
Heather Will-Browne 2007
none presented 2008
Bernard F. Walraven, Sr. 2009
Nona Wolfram Koivula 2010
Kenneth Bodger 2011
Dr. Jim Alston 2012
Joel Goldsmith 2013
Allan Armitage 2014
Dr. Elisabeth Sahin 2015
Jim Nau 2016
Vicky Rupley 2017
Doug and Karen Jimerson 2019
* Award given posthumously

Previous AAS Medallion of Honor Recipients and Nominees

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