O so slow to open

Lovely tall, almost side ry quality to it Brian! Great colour too!

so beautiful :-)))

Well worth the wait, though. Beautiful!

Gosh they are early Brian. Beautiful colour.

Mine are still in bud its lovely to see your beauties Brian :o)

Lovely to see these stately Irises flowering so well! :-))

I have some purple Dutch Iris that should flower in the spring in some of the pots on our balcony railings.

Balcony
Used to have quite a lot of Dutch ones in the garden but they died out, my garden is heavy clay and think they rotted in the winter.

This will be the first time in quite a few years I've planted any. I got several packs of Purple Iris, Anemones & Tulips for 99p each in town & planted them in clay pots on the balcony railings.

The Irises & Anemones started to grow within a couple of weeks, much to my surprise! No sign of the Tulips yet. I also overplanted them with Crocuses & Winter Flowering Pansies! All at present looking good!

Balcony tulips usually show later than the others you mention.

While that may be true I've had Tulips on my balcony that have been through since before Christmas! Even down on the allotment there are lots that have an inch or two of their noses poking through the ground! I was clearing the remains of Gladioli from the bed this morning & I found dozens of Tulips sticking up through the ground!

On the other hand there is still no sign of the purple Tulips I put in the pots on the balcony railings. Then again I overplanted them with other bulbs, purple Irises & purple Anemones. These in their turn were overplanted with Crocuses (mixed colours) & a Winter Flowering Pansy in each pot! All the bulbs have come up except for the Tulips! But then they may have to "spear" their way through the Pansies! LOL!

Balcony can't explain the pots but for sure the ground is warmer than pots in winter

Yes, because pots have such a small amount of soil in them & they are exposed to the cold air on all sides that they get colder much quicker but they also warm up quicker as well for the same reason.