Help identifying iris characteristics

We bought a house a few years ago (eastern Virginia) that apparently had two types of bearded irises. One type dies back in the winter. The foliage turns brown and dries up. The others stay green although there is a little browning around the tips. The evergreen variety certainly had more and prettier blossoms this year ALTHOUGH I would swear some that were blue last year are now reddish purple. There are even a few that now look more like a light, nearly white Japanese iris with only streaks of purple. Is that possible?
I divided the plants the first year we were here so now I have half a row of one variety, half a row of the other, etc. Not as attractive as I had expected. I'd certainly appreciate information and suggestions.

The leaves look like tall bearded to me.

I believe they are or at least were(!) tall bearded irises. 2 of my neighbors this morning also remembered them being blue last year! I don't know if you can see from the picture that there are also at least three there that are the same height but look for all the world to me to be more like a Japanese iris. I should have taken a close up - and of course, they are gone now. It is possible that when I moved the corms there were a few different ones that didn't bloom at all until this year. That would make some sense except for the fact that I do not have any other irises like that anywhere else on the property! It's certainly a mystery to me!
Although, come to think of it, I did have a somewhat similar situation many years ago in my first garden. I planted 4 or 5 different varieties of daffodils and narcissus from Burpees. In about 3 years, they were mostly all wild looking double yellow daffodils. A few narcissus stayed true but most did not. I called Burpees about it but their clerk said she had never heard of anything like that before. She offered a few speculations that really didn't fit.
I assumed that something growing from a bulb or root would stay true. Is that not the case?