Dr. Tom Ranney, horticultural science professor at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center near Asheville, won the American Horticulture Society’s Marc Cathey Award for outstanding scientific research. Ranney has released hybrids such as the flowering shrub Calycanthus ‘Venus’ and created two new bigeneric genera xSchimlinia floribunda (Schima x Franklinia) and xGordlinia (Gordonia x Franklinia).