Chacun à son goût or a winning trend?

The future of iris breeding

Today I decided to start a little new breeding line besides my normal breeding program.
I really like "unusual" irises such as broken color irises, irises with variegated foliage and space age irises. I would like to combine these features in one plant just to see whether it is worth it to go away from the natural appearance of irises more and more.
In the past the targets of iris breeding seemed to be clear: making irises stronger, clearer in patterns and color and more versatile and resistant. But you can't carry things too far. I wonder which trends will present themselves in the future - What will we have to work on? Of course some features such as blooming time and resistance are not nearly exhausted, but what can be done by breeders if the potential of new, better irises is decreasing? One trend seems to be to alter irises more than it might be good. Some breeders are anon trying to bring irises back to their established, more original appearance. I am not sure, whether there will be a trend, which is winning through, but I am going to tell you what I learn by combining new motives. And maybe we could start a discussion on what will be most important in the future of iris breeding.