Sounds like they may have planted some Stellas with your HR's. I am not an expert but They are pretty much the same in size I think. I've had Stella's but no HR's so I can't say for sure...Sorry! After the expense, it gets discouraging I think...Ellie

Can you post a pic of the clump? Sounds like maybe some orange ditch lilies were mixed in and is taking over the HR. Ditch lilies are very invasive.

Andrea

Thanks, Andrea and all. I did search old threads again, this time using Google rather than the GardenWeb search. I turned up a couple where folks had had this happen in other varieties, but not Happy Returns. In those cases, it was suggested the problem was a bad tissue cultivation that allowed the plant to "reverse," I guess, to the original? Not sure I'm explaining that well.

Here is a picture of the swath:

And here is a picture close-up. The taller one in full bloom to the left is one of the more orange ones. They also have grown faster and bloomed earlier.

The plant to the right is what SHOULD be there. Yellow ones. You can see it is lagging. I might add that all these are blooming, location wise, just where she planted them on original installation.

Thanks for your insights.

It looks like mizellie is correct. It appears you could have some Stella D'Oro mixed in with the Happy Returns. Stella is a golden yellow where HR is a lemon yellow.
It's frustrating when it sounds like you only wanted a single color, and now you have 2 growing. At least they both look healthy and should both bloom well all season long... Candy