I ran across my iris neomarica photos (see something like page 2 in this thread), so I'm adding them onto this thread. As said before, they're not really iris. The photos are of them in a pot in my business partner's patio in a climate quite similar in some ways to Boomer's.
I assume your average nursery wouldn't have them but there are some interesting plant suppliers in the NW. If you're interested, I'll try to source it and see what area micro climates they work in. I don't remember them as hard to start.
The leaves (that's wisteria beyond)
The flowers - I found them stunning. Photo may show up here a little dark, but they're dark purple.
