Heidi,
I have over 400 named irises in my yard. I do have one round bed with the smaller irises on the outside and the larger ones in the middle.
I also have one large bed that is just laid out in rows. I have daylilies planted along the border of that bed, so when the irises are done for the spring..the daylily foliage covers up the irises.
I then have another large bed that I keep looking nice year around , by cutting off bloom stalks and removing any leaves that are dead or dying.

As for growing them in posts, yes it can be done. I have a large black iron pot in my front yard that my husband planted an iris in just to be cute. He never thought it would bloom. But every yr for the past 3 yrs it has bloomed wonderful in the pot.

littlebit

400?
Post pictures of those Iris beds please!
At least email me some pics!!
Bring some of those divisions to the MTPS!!! ;-)

I'd like to see some pics of those 400 irises also!

I have some Irises planted in a very large bed under my kitchen windows. There are also some cannas there in the back that have just now gotten full size and will start blooming soon which is nice since the irises are finished.

In front of the irises are some other plant that I don't know what they are, but I got them from the plant swap and they are all about to bloom. They look like daylilies on the bottom, but have put up stems about 30 inches high with about 4 buds on each.

In front of those, I have some pink mums and purple asters which are beginning to fill out nicely. In between the mums and asters I have planted some petunias which are sort of lagging but beginning to fill out.

To the right side (narrower end of the bed) in this bed just under my bay window I have two rows of those oriental dark pink & white lillies with the same row of mums, asters and petunias in front.

To the left side (wider end of the bed) I have some beautiful candy pink daylilies.

Soon, I plan to cut the irises the way they were cut last year when I received them at the plant swap. They were cut in kind of a pyramid - spiked triangle. They look very neat this way, but right now the greenery is really still pretty.

I am just a beginner, but I have had very good luck with the raised beds since nothing grows very well here in our clay.

Hope that helps,
Katie