After everything I have read, it sure does sound like scorch. So... a larger number of leaf hoppers because of mild weather would probably result in more than just the occasional case of scorch. If it is transmitted plant to bug to plant, that would mean that the germ originally came from an iris that I bought that had it in a not yet visible state. Does this sound right? And because I have tried to coddle these brown middle leaf plants for a few years there are a lot more reservoirs for a lot more leaf hoppers....In which case we are probably just sitting on the tip of an iceberg!