but now that i'm looking at the pictures it looks as though the beards are totally different colors......maybe there's several varieties in this clump?

I would bet you have 2 totally different iris there. I think some iris can look slightly different due to soil conditions or temps, but not that different. Iris can multiply so fast that they can invade another's territory.

Thanks ngraham! This particular clump is out in the middle of the gravel far away from my other Iris, so no invasion. They must have mistakenly included a different variety of Iris in the bag that I bought (that's walmart for you!) and I guess the more yellow iris didn't bloom last year. Although funny thing I haven't gotten any of the pinkish blooms yet like I had last year! Weird!

Walmart has that reputation, although when I bought my first iris from them years ago I didn't have that problem. I must have been lucky because Wmart has a bad reputation.