Would these smaller flowered ones be the size of Blyth's, say Chinese Treasure? Who hybridized Dolce and Passionate Embrace?

No, smaller. I am going to guess and say three inches across the falls.
Paul Black introduced Dolce a few years back. It is a species cross.
Paul is also the hybridizer of Passionate Embrace.

I have Dolce growing extremely well here and have not noticed any cracking or falling down. I love these SFTBs. Paul is opening up an entirely new class, which I hope AIS will recognize soon when more of these hit the market. They are a welcomed addition and fabulous for iris arrangers who like smaller flowers.

Yow. I have to get in line for that one. Thanks for posting these. I might have seen some SFTBs in late May when I was there, but I wasn't sure what I was looking at.

It will be interesting to see how how (and if) AIS defines a new category. I have heard judges discuss whether something is an IB or a BB. Could get tricky defining "small flowered" I guess.

From what I have learned from Paul at a judges' training session, these flowers may be border in size but the stalk exceeds the minimum 27.5 inches, the standard for a TB. Of course, it will be slow for these to become accepted by AIS and the public in general. Some will say they are out of proportion, but I do not find that to be the case unless you have a small flower on a 40" stalk. I think 30 to 34" is ok. Further, I don't think they belong in the Spec-X class, where Dolce has been registered. The aphylla species used in creating them is far in the background. These are not directly descended from i.aphylla and any of the species that make up the tall bearded or median classes of irises. That's why they need to be called SFTBs. A problem with border bearded is that many of the flowers are too large and are merely what a lot of people call 'short talls.' Most come from TB x TB crosses. In my opinion, a 'short tall' should be composted. Probably, more than you wanted to know.

I was wondering if aphylla was used. The name escapes of the folks who have introdouced BB's with aphylla breeding. Amazing bud count reported.

Thanks for Black's name as the hybridizer of these 2.

Um, aren't some of these miniature talls? What I want to know is are they as late as the regular talls?

No, if you put these alongside miniature talls you will see a definite difference. I will have to look back at my photos to see if some of these are early. We are in late season now. These have been blooming for two weeks at least. Thanks Walter for mentioning the cut flower aspect. My brother used to own some floral shops and I asked him once why we didn't see more bearded iris in arrangements. One reason was the size of the bloom- too big.

Thank you so much for posting this info. They are certainly very intriguing & welcome.

Some SFTBs have MTBs in the background, but not as the two immediate parents. The flowers are larger and more ruffled than the MTBs.