Gold Medal Award: Jim Barlup
Jim Barlup |
Your tremendous effort to create distinctive rhododendrons is most impressive. Your incredibly high levels of energy, enthusiasm, curiosity, creativity, persistence, productivity, generosity and kindness have facilitated your accomplishments and made you a very special human being.
The basic elements in your unique cutting edge breeding endeavor are: taking on difficult, challenging objectives; searching, discovering and acquiring the most promising parents; establishing a mutually benefiting network; generously sharing breeding material and insights; making over 1,000 crosses each year; critically evaluating your seedlings; and encouraging nurseries and others to test grow your most beautiful selections. This explains why you are such an outstanding hybridizer and such a great role model for contemporary and future rhododendron hybridizers.
With great respect and appreciation, the American Rhododendron Society is proud to award the Gold Medal to Jim Barlup, May 15, 2004, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.