The Iris Encyclopedia is a great source for learning more about specific irises you already have or know you are interested in. It currently has, as of December 26, 52,663 cultivars and 36,348 images. This represents 75% of the registered iris cultivars.
You can also use the Iris Encyclopedia to find irises of interest you don’t yet know about!
One approach is to look at the award winning irises. The Iris Encyclopedia has an Awards page that lists the various Medals and Cups that irises can win. Most of the major American Medals on this page already direct you to pages with pictures of the irises that have won that Medal. For example, the American Dykes Medal shows all the winners from its inception in 1927 to the present. The Awards page also has links to winners, and runners up, by year. The Awards 2011 page shows or lists these for the most recent year.
You can also find unusual irises by looking at the Novelty Iris page. These are irises that have properties differing from the mainstream, or did when they were first introduced. These are those currently with pages:
A reminder – all of the Iris Encyclopedia is a work in progress. For some of these pages, the iris names are not yet linked. You can help by registering so you can add such links. Also, your observations on specific irises performance can help improve the Iris Encyclopedia.