You are lucky that the gophers haven't gotten any irises (or maybe it is the Molemax, whatever that is... I'll have to look it up). Some years ago, I had two large clumps of 'Arctic Express'. The gophers got all of one clump before I knew what was going on!
Re blue beards.. This year I got 'Bluebeard' , 'Emilo', and 'Blue Fin', and I saw my first blooms on 'Alien Mist' (thanks, Mary Ann!). Most of these were mentioned earlier in the thread. (Trying not to thread drift here.
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