Iris for mulched daylily garden?

Last year I put in a new garden bed which is a daylily garden. I left space to plant some other things between but last year just put some annuals as I was not ready to get anything perment between them. Was thinking of maybe bulb lilies but this is not the best arrangement for them in my opinion. Iris would be perfect but I knew I could not do TB as the garden is heavily mulched and they (TB) would not like those tubers totally covered.

Now I realise (duh, the light bulb goes off!) that my thinking was too narrow. What if I planted Siberian and that new (to me I just heard of it today) Spuria Iris between the daylilies? It seems to me that any Iris should work as long as its the type that you bury the root and not plant on top like TB. Am I right or is there a flaw in my thinking?

I have some Siberian here for years and years, I love the folliage and would love more. I just never thought about what sorts of roots they have, they are easy to plant and grow.

Years ago over at another house I also had Japanese Iris. I loved them but it was so long ago that I do not remember much about them. I think they like lots of watering. I can not remember when they bloomed compaired to bearded iris. Are the Japanese Iris ones that would do well in heavy mulch?

Lots of questions but lots of new Ideas in my head for that just daylily garden. I really do not want to plant annuals there every year, I just did that last year as a filler. I want to be able to plant that garden so that it needs not much fuss (I do water) and also add spring flowering bulbs but I have not gotten to them yet either.

Spuria, siberian and Japanese iris should all do very well under those conditions. Japanese do like lot of water, but will do well when watered as much as a daylily. As Ensata says, treat you Japanese irises like a 50.00 daylily and they will do just fine.

Here the siberians start blooming around the time the TB end, and the Japanese after.

Pirl lives near your area, and she can tell you if the Japanese bloom around the same time as daylilies there.

JI's begin to bloom out here on eastern Long Island on June 21 and continue through mid July. Last year I purchased 'Variations in Pink' that is listed as E, M, L so it promises a longer season of bloom and the JI's do bloom at the same time as daylilies though I try not to mix them together and have them in separate areas from the daylilies (generally).

It's shown here: http://www.eartheartgardens.com/index_files/mcewen_japanese_iris.htm