I grow TB's but my favorite by far are the shorter irises. They bloom earlier, clump faster most of the time and I have never had one short bloom stalk fall over in storms. For the past few years I have been staking TB's and the ones I do not stake I have to pick the stalks up from the ground. The local hybridizer, Mark Grumbine, has one he has named Sturdy Man. One day when I was working in his garden he was telling me that it got its name because after one of our spring storms he went out to check on his irises and it was the only stalk not lying on the ground. Waiting all year for bloom and having the hail beat them up and the wind blow them down takes the heart right out of you. The shorter ones seem to withstand more weather here. I will say that the little irises cannot match a huge modern TB bloom so if that is what you love keep growing TB's.
