(I posted this in the Mid-Atlantic Gardening forum also)

I moved into a new house last fall and am going through my first year of identifying the plants in the yard. I was gone all through the month of May, and one week of June, so I missed seeing what bloomed then.

I have what I think are iris growing in part of the yard - but now I'm not so sure.

Since I want to move the iris away where they are at, I started digging them up, and they just seem to be green stems with roots. I haven't rinsed the soil off the roots, but I don't see obvious rhizomes sticking out from in there - just green stems attached to roots.

Is there a chance they aren't iris? Could they be an ornamental grass?

The green stems are growing in the shape of a circle (not a ball) with nothing in the middle. Is that normal?

I think there is a leftover stem of a dead bloom on a couple of these plants. That makes me feel like these are iris --- but where are the rhizomes? I'm digging up about 6" of attached "root ball" (not really a root ball, but that deep is what I mean)

How do iris do in shade?