The climate and soil where I grow iris is very similar to Hedgecock in Missouri and BlueJ in Nebraska. My iris look like theirs. They don't look like the ones from Washington, California and Oregon. Pink iris, in particular can vary quite a bit based on the soil and water. I moved from 3 miles away, taking my iris plants with me, and for the first two years I swore the iris and tags were mixed up. The pink iris just weren't the same. Now i have discovered that on this property, an iris grown on the west side of the yard may look different from the same iris on the east side of the 10 acres. There is a creek running through the property, so the soil does differ.
At our local iris shows color differences are always a topic of conversation.
I do think I'll send a polite note to Rockytop explaining my difficulty with reading the catalog. Honestly, I'm the 2nd-youngest in my iris club, and if I'm having problems reading it, then I doubt any of the others would even attempt it. Maybe if i send the $5 for the catalog, he'll make a black and white copy for me?
In my fantasy of the perfect catalog, a shopper could sort through the list and pull up a list by hybridizer or by years. I can do that on my Plantstep spreadsheets.
