Honorable Mention

Established in 1950, the Honorable Mention is the first official recognition a cultivar can receive from the AHS and serves as an important indicator of performance beyond the regional level.

To receive the award, a cultivar must earn a minimum of fifteen votes from AHS Garden Judges, with those votes coming from at least four different AHS regions. Judges may vote only for cultivars they have personally observed within their own region.

Cultivars are typically nominated by their hybridizers and must have been registered for at least three calendar years to be eligible. The Awards and Honors Committee may also nominate up to ten cultivars each year that it believes have been previously overlooked. A hybridizer may nominate the same cultivar a maximum of three times, though the nominations do not need to occur in consecutive years. After a third nomination, the cultivar is no longer eligible for nomination by the hybridizer.