QBARS - v32n3 American Rhododendron Society 1978 Medal Awards to Gordon Jones, Dr. Herman Sleumer, Sidney Burns

American Rhododendron Society Medal Award Citations

ARS GOLD MEDAL AWARD CITATION TO GORDON JONES

As Director of The Planting Fields Arboretum, your contributions have been in the field of education. Your concept of a "Synoptic Garden" is an ingenious alphabetical arrangement of plants, an educational experience for students of all horticulture.

You have developed new areas for the evaluation of rhododendrons while preserving the original landscape design. Through your work with Malesian rhododendrons, cuttings have been available to members for experimentation. You have assisted serious propagators with pollen and cuttings and sent seed to the seed exchange.

Many horticultural groups have benefited from your lectures and your writing. As guest editor of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's handbook, "Rhododendrons and their Relatives" you received worldwide attention. Both the 1965 convention, of which you were chairman, and this 1978 meeting owe much of their success to your organizational skills.

As a member of the ARS Research Foundation, and Director of the Rhododendron Species Foundation, Your experience serves us well. You are beloved by all for your quiet, unassuming manner and friendly assistance.

The American Rhododendron Society proudly presents its highest honor, the GOLD MEDAL, to GORDON E. JONES Member of the New York Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society By unanimous action of the Board of Directors of the American Rhododendron Society, May 20, 1978.

ARS GOLD MEDAL AWARD CITATION TO DR. HERMAN SLEUMER

To find a person who has done so much for rhododendron scholarship and rhododendron growers as has Dr. Herman Sleumer, we would need to look back several generations to J. D. Hooker.

Dr. Sleumer, in 1949, took a new approach to rhododendron classification: he combined botanical theory, which he had refined, with the series concept familiar to most growers. This innovation provided the scientist and the amateur with some common ground. But, published in Germany, it received little attention in English speaking countries until this year.

His 1960 paper on tropical rhododendrons, however, provoked worldwide interest. These plants had been neglected throughout the heyday of Asiatic introductions, and Dr. Sleumer now described 96 new species and discussed nearly 200 others - in total about one third of the genus. Then, along with his research in New Guinea, he introduced rhododendrons to cultivation as fast as he found them, with both amateurs and professionals as recipients.

Hooker, we are told, often visited the gardens of Scottish friends, making sure that his new rhododendrons were properly grown. Dr. Sleumer also enjoys seeing his new introductions in greenhouses and gardens, and the people he visits always remember his warm friendliness.

The American Rhododendron Society presents its Highest tribute, the GOLD MEDAL to DR. HERMAN SLEUMER by unanimous action of the Board of Directors of the American Rhododendron Society, 20 May 1978

ARS SILVER MEDAL AWARD CITATION TO SIDNEY V. BURNS

You became President of the fledgling New York Chapter and worked to see it become one of the largest chapters in the American Rhododendron Society. Through your leadership, direction and personal commitment, informational displays were entered in a great many flower shows. Booklets, dealing with the successful cultivation of rhododendrons, were prepared by you, or under your guidance, to be offered to the gardening public at these shows. Every chapter in the region gained new members as a result of these displays.

Your garden is an inspiration to all rhododendron enthusiasts, not only for its beauty, but also as a source of pollen and cuttings from rare rhododendrons, both species and hybrids. These you have generously supplied to gardeners all over the world. Your collection of outstanding hybrid seedlings has saved many fine clones from extinction. By propagation, you have made it possible for others to enjoy them in their own gardens. Your leadership on the local, regional and national level, as speaker, coordinator and as a member of the Board of Directors has given direction to us all.

The American Rhododendron Society is proud to present the Silver Medal for the dedicated service of SIDNEY V. BURNS. member of the New York Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society. By unanimous action of the Board of Directors of the American Rhododendron Society, 20 May 1978