Neal, I imagine that's why you needn't bother handpicking the foliage if you know it will fall off by itself anyway.
Since we don't have those low temps here, I always hand pick the remaining foliage when I prune in January. Otherwise, it hangs on for months, turns ugly colors and looks abysmal. Not to mention what a colossal PITA it is to stand there for hours picking off each leaf. lol
I had an uncle who dabbled in iris crossing and he came up with some really bizarre combinations. He just did it for fun and probably didn't know what he was doing anyway.
