I grow a lot of bearded iris, but mainly because I like the look of them. They are lovely but they do have their problems. I've never had iris borers here, but I understand they can destroy iris. Beardeds don't like wet soggy soil either, although Siberians & some of the other iris can handle it, even require it. We have lots of heavy winds & rain in the spring when they are blooming, the tall beardeds tend to get top heavy & flop. I really prefer border beardeds & intermediates because of that. They bloom in the spring for a couple of weeks, if you get rebloomers they will bloom again in late summer/fall. they can look pretty ratty in July, some varieties more so than others. Pros, they don't require a lot of care, unless you have as many as I have and the plants are very hardy. As far as planting time, I prefer to plant about now, but they aren't picky. I've seen different dividing times suggested, from just after blooming through July-when iris are in their more dormant period. I've divided & planted up until November in my zone 6/6b, & even had bloom that late, but not what I would normally suggest. Siberians are pretty hardy too for me, they really don't stay in bloom long, but the foliage looks good all summer. I've never had much luck with the Japanese iris.

Sorry, probably more info than you were really looking for, but I tend to go on about my favorite subject.

In the northeast, the goal is to get them in the ground early enough so that they have good root systems developed before winter. So no, I wouldn't wait until fall. You could plant now, or up to July for best results.

If you're ordering online, you might want to do that soon. As a rule, they don't ship past a certain date; plus they might run out of the ones you want.