Iris hybrids aren't patented, and breeders can't recoup their costs over several years. Growers who sell both new and old varieties are also seeing increases. Ms. Nolin didn't grow irises until discovering the patterned types three years ago. Now there are 300 irises in her Columbus, Ohio, garden. But there are ways to avoid sticker-shock.
Irises are prolific growers which spread via bulb-like rhizomes underground.
Gardeners like Mary Ann Oakland, of Montevideo, Minn., say they plant one new variety a year, then dig them up after a few years, dividing the rhizomes into three or four new plants to fill the garden. In Freemont, Calif., John I. Jones assembled his garden of 500 irises by trading plants with other gardeners and by going to flower shows, where plants are usually cheaper than at nurseries. When her list of must-have irises tallied into hundreds of dollars last year, Virginia Smallwood, of Hanford, Calif., drew up an elaborate chart of different nurseries' prices on her computer. I call it my lust index.