yet another dangerous thread in the iris forum--in terms of inducing me to covet more iris...hatch ambitious winter plans to create more garden space...as if... for all the more iris that I suddenly
need 
I really do have a thing for the little ones! I don't know what happened there but it bit me for sure
Comparing floriferous-ness, I think it might be important to note that SDBs and MDBs are not at all the same thing in a different size. Much more useful to see the MDBs in a class by themselves, as they are, and see the SBDs with the medians, as they are.
Many of the MDBs, owing to their
pumila (and
lutescens) heritage are flowering on a lengthened perianth tube, thus branchless with a single terminal flower--so their floriferous-ness is necessarily different. They can have a profusion of multiple 'stems' though...
Another distinction about the MDBs is that they really do have a winter chill requirement in order to bloom well.
The medians, in contrast, will have two or more terminal buds and can have branching stems so they are more classically floriferous and over a longer period of time.
