Wendy, They really prefer boggy, edge of the water conditions. And, they're a waste of productive growing space in the field. Growing them in a garden is totally different than field production. If you can have these before your competition, or before people have them growing in their own gardens, it's a good thing. It's what we have to do. These bulbs are excellent grown in bulb crates; and, the bulbs can be forced. You can plant 60 bulbs per crate. For this reason, they are also great for hoophouse production in an unheated house or moderately heated (50 degree) one. Most likely this is what your competition (or their source) had done in order to have all of those colors blooming at once. Both Gloeckner and Ednie Bulbs are very helpful with forcing information. I think Zabo Bulbs said that you can expect three years production from the bulb crates. That isn't bad considering it's about a 14 cent investment. Bulb vendors will ship prechilled bulbs through March for forcing. We like Yellow Queen, Yesterday, Blue Dream, White Magic, and Apollo (which is 30" tall). These are all taller than some of basic Dutch Iris which are around 20" tall. We had Purple Sensation, which was given to us by an elderly flower grower a few years ago. We had it growing on the edge of the woods where it stays wet all the time. An old creek ran through that area. Purple Sensation is only supposed to get 20" tall; but, I think it was at least 24-26" tall. Then, we decided to divide the plants. The experts said they should then be planted in a different area. They were not happy in the new location. They rewarded us by blooming 18" tall -- if that. If I remember correctly, the gentleman who gave them to us also had them growing along the woods edge. Then, we started to experiment with growing in bulb crates. Love growing in crates. Love that there's no weeding involved. So, anyway, try the bulb crates. You're already growing lilies in crates. I think you'll be happy with the results. Trish

You can find Lots of TB pics at Snowpeak (hot link below) and to see Dutch iris, which grow from bulbs, do a google image search. I have heard zone 6 is too cold for Dutch iris to naturalize as kprp says. As for differences, Dutch iris take less space, are shorter and are wonderful cut flowers for mixed spring bouquets. TBs form much larger clumps, are much taller and aren't too great for bouquets. One stem is quite dramatic but make sure it isn't one that 'drips' after cutting. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.snowpeakiris.com/newweb/navpage.htm

Replant in a straight line, full sun, each piece 18 inches apart... Even further...like the distance of your lawn mower deck.. If you put the remains of 40 varieties in the same bed, you'll be there again in 2 years. s

The dutch iris are not expensive and are delightful in the spring. I found the same thing to be true of my mix. There were more blues than white or yellow. Molly