Unless you live where Betty lives or have the space and patience, I'd suggest only trying a few of the newer Blyth iris until you see how they do in your climate. They have a hard time adapting here in Tennessee.
Decadence took a few years to grow and blooms evey other year
Drinks at Sunset has barely held on for 3 years, but now has two small fans, so will probably bloom in 2013
High Master grows well but has never bloomed
Lousia's Song grows well but I don't think it has bloomed recently.
Beach Girl and Coconut Ice are barely hanging in there each year
One of the Coffee ones (Coffee Whisper, I think) blooms every year.
My other TB Blyth ones are similar to the above (the newer ones; the ones intro'd before 2000 all do a lot better). I have a lot of iris (don't ask....
), so it doesn't bother me that some rarely bloom. But if you are only going to have room for a few iris and want blooms every year, I would only try a few of the Blyth ones to start.
