My irises are blooming!

Many years ago my step-mom, Deena gave me a bunch of iris bulbs because iris are my favorite flower and she had received a bunch of bulbs from my Grandma Tinker before she died. That is one thing that my grandma loved a lot was irises and she had a bunch of colors and different kinds. Every year I would hope that my irises would bloom and every year the purple ones would but non of the other colors would but this year I have yellow, a pinkish color and of course the purple ones. I'm in iris heaven!!! When Kevin and I got married we even had an iris on the front of our wedding invitations and iris were in my bouquet.
What is your favorite flower??? Do you have a story about them? I also love TULIPS but have not had any luck with them, not sure why they just won't grow in my flower bed. I had one lone tulip come up last year and I was sad because I had planted a bunch of tulip bulbs. So far none have come up this year...