They start to look brown and not healthy if I don't water. If I water they look dark green and succulent all summer. I think watering is a very individual thing depending on your climate, temps., rainfall. soil, and other things. Nothing will work the same everywhere. One of my good friends who is gone now had 400+ iris and a large vegetable garden and berries. He raised his iris in rows with a furrow on each side. He had an irrigation turn here weekly. He was at the end of the ditch so had waste water for several hours. He soaked the roots of his iris every week all summer long. If you went there after he watered you could sink into the muddy path several inches. He grew large healthy rhizomes which he sold very reasonably and donated box fulls to the UIS Sale. I would suggest that you experiment....water some more often, some less often and let some go. See what works for you in your micro-climate.
