first are they bearded iris or beardless. If bearded you want to remove the moist towel as that can and many times leads to rot. If it is too hot to plant in the garden right now then pot them up and put in the shade. If about 70-80 degrees then plant in the ground after you have trimmed them to about 8" water.
If beardless plant in pot if hot weather until much cooler weather.

D

Mine are breaded irises. I did check today and sure enough they have soft rotted places on them. I think it was mostly where the leaves had been as all teh leaves were really bad. So have I lost them all for sure now. What should I do now> Can they stil be saved? I read about cleaning off soft spots and putting Comet on for rot?

You can dry them off, cut off all of the rotted parts, and leave them to fully dry out for about a week in a cool shady area.

Then you can try planting them when you are ready.

I plant at this time of year in Southern California, but we don't get rain in the summer.

After you have planted them in full sun, with the tops of the rhizomes exposed, no mulch, soak them well and then don't water again for two weeks. They are very tough plants, and some will probably come back to life for you.

Renee

the other suggestion too if it is so hot, is putting them in a spot (perhaps under a small tree) where they will get sun all day except in the middle of the day, it's perfect for establishing new irises especially when it's hot

Before you re-plant, put them into a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) for a few minutes to kill any remaining fungus or microbes.

crossing my fingers for you!

I have some sitting in the house in the cool waiting to be replanted..